Worcestershire

1976 Benson & Hedges Cup Finalists

Norman Gifford is the first person to laugh about his record in one-day finals at Lord’s with Worcestershire which reads played four and lost four.

Gifford helped the county to win three County Championship titles and a John Player Sunday League crown in his long career.

But the story was completely different when it came to the Gillette Cup, first losing to Sussex in the first final in 1963 and then to Warwickshire three years later.

They also lost two Benson & Hedges Cup Finals in 1973 to Kent, who would again beat them in north-west London three years later.

“The Giffords have not got a great record in finals at Lord’s,” he explained.“My brother lost a Village Cup Final there and I also took Sussex to one when I coached Sussex and we lost that.

“If Worcestershire get to a final while I’m still about they certainly don’t want to invite me.”

Worcestershire still had the foundations of the side that had helped them win the Championship two years earlier.

But they had started to introduce younger players like Phil Neale, Cedric Boyns, Dipak Patel, Barry Jones and Imran Khan into the side.

Gifford believes that the dominance that they county enjoyed in the late Eighties would have come a lot earlier had they not have lost Imran.“We had a good side which was a bland of youth and experience.

“And I think that if Imran Khan had stayed with us rather than gone to Sussex we would have been a very good side for a few years after that as well. He had just started to realise that he could bowl with a fair bit of pace.

“He turned out to be a real crackerjack, didn’t he? If he would have stayed with the likes of Glenn Turner we would have been a very, very good outfit for a year or two.

“But that has been the history of Worcestershire really, we had a very good side in the Sixties, a useful side in the Seventies and then you had the Hick and Botham era,” he adds.

Gifford points out that Worcestershire might have broken their duck in the finals had it not have been for a piece of bad luck.

D’Oliveira, who like Gifford was playing in his fourth final, tore a hamstring just four overs into his spell after Kent had won the toss and batted first.

Kent set Worcestershire 237 for victory after Graham Johnson and Bob Woolmer put on 110 for the first wicket.

But, instead of batting at three, D’Oliveira came in at No.6, with the help of a runner in Glenn Turner, and he did the best to turn the tide.

But his 50 wasn’t quite enough as Worcestershire, who were all out for 193, fell just 43 runs short of their target and it could have been different had fate not dealt its blow.

“Kent, in those days, were a very strong side.We had a good side but Kent were the favourites and were winning quite a lot with their team.

“I would imagine that was their golden era really with Mike Denness, Brian Luckhurst, Derek Underwood and Alan Ealham.

“Basil pulled a hamstring when we were fielding and Cedric Boyns finished up bowling his overs. Then went it came to us batting he was struggling with the injury.

“He made 50. But when you had Basil at the crease in a big final like that, he was certainly very motivated for it and made a half century on one leg.

“If he’d been fit I think we would have made a better show of it, I think, especially batting second,” adds Gifford. BACK ROW (LEFT-RIGHT): Dipak Patel: Kenyan-born New Zealand off-spinning all-rounder went into coaching with Central Districts, New Zealand U19’s and now Cricket Papua New Guinea. Phil Neale: Batsman who played in the Football League with Scunthorpe United and Lincoln City, has been working for the ECB since 2000 as England’s operations manager. Cedric Boyns: A Cambridge University educated batsman Was a biology teacher at RGS Worcester and housemaster at Bloxham School. Now lives in Truro, Cornwall. John Inchmore: A pace bowler who became a successful insurance broker running Inchmore & Co in Market Harborough, Leicestershire. Paul Pridgeon: All-rounder who is currently a PE teacher, cricket professional and manager of the Neville Cardus Cricket Centre at Shrewsbury School. Ravinder Senghera: An Indian born spinner is now living in the Birmingham area and is involved in property development. Gordon Wilcock: A wicketkeeper batsman who was a sales director in manufacturing until retiring in 2002 and is now living in Ilkley, West Yorkshire.

SITTING:

Ted Hemsley: A left handed batsman who played professional football for Sheffield United. Became a bookie and was then betting ring inspector at several racecourses in the north. Alan Ormrod: An opening batsman, he coached Lancashire and then became director of cricket at Nott. He also ran a flooring company while he played. Glenn Turner: The New Zealan Test star stayed in the game as coach, manager, chairman of selectors and then high-performance talent scout for New Zealand Cricket. Norman Gifford: An England spinner, who retired at 48, then coached Sussex. He returned to Worcestershire as a part-time spin bowling coach. Basil D’Oliveira: England batsman coached the county for a decade and died in November 2011, aged 80. His son Damien, who died in June 2014, and grandson Brett have also played for Worcestershire. Imran Khan: The Pakistan all-rounder has been a cricket commentator, chancellor of the University of Bradford. He is now involved in politics and runs a charity foundation.

NOT PICTURED:

Barry Jones: A batsman who left the game to become a farmer and now works in the family farming business in Upton Magna, Shropshire. Jim Cumbes: A pace bowler who also played in goal for Aston Villa. Lancashire’s chief executive between 1998 and his retirement in 2012.