Staffordshire CCC

1991 Minor Counties double winners

where are they now?

Staffordshire wrote themselves into the history books when they became the first county to achieve the Minor Counties double.

And, like London buses, when you wait for one to come along it is soon followed by at least one more in a short period of time.

Staffs beat Devon by four wickets in the Lord’s final of 1991 and repeated the feat again two seasons later when they won the Championship and defeated Wiltshire at the home of cricket.

Indeed they would have won a hat-trick of doubles had Devon not gained revenge in 1992 by winning the Knockout Trophy by the same four-wicket margin as they were defeated by in 1991.

Staffordshire batsman Nick Archer said: “The one-day competition was relatively new so there hadn’t been too many opportunities to do the double before then. But we were the first and repeated it in 1993.

“We almost pulled it off three times in a row but missed out in the one-day competition in the middle year. But at the time we got the balance of the side right.

“It used to be very north Staffs orientated but we got players together from the North and the South of the county playing which made the difference.

“Once we got into that habit of winning in 1991 the momentum carried us through 1992 and 1993 but then the side started to break up a little bit.

“But we had come close to winning the league in the previous two or three years without doing it. And in 1989 we had four bowlers who went onto play for England.

“We had Joey Benjamin, Paul Taylor, Dean Headley and Dominic Cork and you would have thought you’d dominate with a seam attack like that.

“But we couldn’t quite put it together, so it was quite ironic that when they all went back into first-class cricket we got the balance of the side right.”

In the first final Staffordshire won the toss and decided to field and Devon set them a target of 240 for victory in 55 overs.

And they reached their target with a ball to spare after needing 17 runs off the last over which were duly smashed by wicketkeeper Mark Humphries.

Archer added: “The main thing I obviously remember is Mark scoring 16 in the last over to win the game. It’s nothing these days but back then it was quite something. It was a bit special.

“We had been on course all the way through but we weren’t quite accurate enough, so were in danger of falling short again but then Mark came in and did that. We got out of jail.

“Then about ten days later, we played Oxfordshire in the Championship Final and we bowled them out for 215 and we knocked them off without loss.

“The Championship was almost an afterthought because Lord’s was seen as the big day out

“Winning at Lord’s gave us a lot of confidence; we had won something and it drove us forward and we then carried it through.

“It broke the duck and removed what felt like a mill stone around our necks because in the late Eighties we had sides that couldn’t quite clinch it.”

BACK ROW (LEFT-RIGHT): Mark Humphries: Wicketkeeper was a miner. Is now area supervisor for an automotive parts company. His brother David was also a keeper, playing for Worcestershire.

Philip Oliver: Batsman who runs sports equipment company Cicada Sports in West Bromwich and is also an ECB coach. He has also coached the Unicorns.

David Banks: Batsman. Is a fully qualified coach and also runs a company Stac Cricket that makes custom cricket bats.

David Blank: All-rounder who is now based in Congleton, Cheshire. Head greenkeeper and operations manager for Blackley Golf Club.

Dave Cartledge: Opening batsman. Staffordshire head of cricket who works as a self employed building contractor in Leek, Staffordshire.

Paul Newman: Fast bowler. Now a full-time pro cricket coach working primarily for a Prep school in Norfolk and for the Norfolk Cricket Board.

Nigel Hackett: Seamer who was last known to be living in West Bromwich and has worked for British Leyland at their Longbridge plant.

Gary Williams: All-rounder still based in his native Wolverhampton who has owned his own business, UK Discount Sales, in the Codsall area and worked for an indoor cricket centre.

FRONT ROW:

Tony Dutton: All-rounder is based in Stoke on Trent where he was a printer for the local paper and is now working as a driver for Winston Joinery

Steve Dean: Opening batsman. Was a schoolmaster at Denstone College and is now based on the South Coast and teaches Maths at Portsmouth GS.

Nick Archer: Batsman who was Warwickshire Cricket Board general manager. Is now chairman of the Minor Counties Cricket Association and general manager for the Birmingham Premier League. Jonathan Addison: Batsman from Stoke-On-Trent, Staffordshire, who has worked as a market trader on local markets in the Potteries.

Tony Hobson: Batsman. A teacher who is head of geography and master in charge of cricket at Repton Preparatory School. He is also fixture secretary of Gentleman of Staffordshire. Russell Spiers: Spinner who was an account manager at Standard Life for 24 years and is now an Independent Financial Advisor with HSP Financial Planning in Leicester.