The day Cloughie put his cricket pads on...
...AND ASTLE, PLEAT AND STOREY-MOORE PLAYED TOO!
AT FIRST glance the photograph looks just like it belongs on the wall of any cricket pavilion across the country. A group of young men with dozens of summer days like this one stretched out ahead of them.
But this was a slightly different cricket team: a group of players who were to achieve great things in a different sport — football.
Two of them, at No 4 and No 12 in our photo, would go on to change the parameters of what was deemed possible in football management — Peter Taylor and Brian Clough.
forty years ago this month, they led Nottingham forest to victory in the 1980 European Cup final, their second successive triumph.
But in the summer of 1962, their horizons were nowhere near as broad. Taylor, 34 at the time, was soon to become the manager of Burton Albion and Clough was in his playing pomp, a 27-year- old forward for sunderland and England who was six months away from a broken leg that was to end his career and point him towards the manager’s office.
Having met as players at Middlesbrough, the two men had stayed in touch and, when Taylor was asked to put together a ‘celebrity’ cricket team to face the inland revenue, for whom he often played, Clough received a call. Also in the line-up that day were two forest teenagers, ian storey-Moore and David Pleat.
‘i didn’t know Cloughie,’ Pleat tells Sportsmail. ‘i was a kid on £8 a week. But i loved cricket and could keep wicket a bit. On the day Cloughie asked me, “What do you do then?”. i told him i was a “stumper” and he promptly sent me to field at third man. i don’t think he was even the captain.’
in fairness, this team had a decent wicketkeeper, forest first- team goalie Peter Grummitt. Also in the line-up were Notts County striker To n y Hateley, who would play for Chelsea and Liverpool, future England striker Jeff Astle, then also at Notts, and Derek Pavis, who was on the board at forest but would later become chairman across the Trent at their neighbours.
Taylor was an opening bowler who could bat, too. Clough, on the other hand, was a spinner. Maybe we are not surprised at that. He also wanted to win. Cue even less surprise.
Clive Wood was a friend of Taylor and playing for the opposition that day. He told Taylor’s daughter, Wendy Dickinson, for her book about her father: ‘Our captain told us to let the all-stars get a good score and we would chase it. it was a friendly after all. ‘This chap came in at No 5 for them and i hadn’t a clue who he was. Our captain deliberately dropped a catch that would have had him out. This lad stops play and says, “if we are going to f****** play this game then let’s play it f****** properly”. ‘When we came in for tea, i asked Peter who the awkward bugger was at No 5. He said, “Don’t worry it’s just my mate Brian Clough”.’
Without doubt the most surprising part of that anecdote is that Clough — the scorer of almost a goal a game at his two North East clubs — could amble on to a cricket field in Nottingham unnoticed and unrecognised.
But in the 1950s and 1960s it was common for footballers to wear whites in the summer. There were no pre-season football tours to get in the way, for example.
The two Nottingham clubs used to play each other at cricket every year. storey- Moore, meanwhile, used to go home to scunthorpe every off season and play in the same steelworks team as future England boss Graham Taylor.
‘ Yes, i can’t imagine any of that happening now,’ chuckles storey-Moore in a phone call this week. ‘But they were different times. i am not sure there was even anyone really watching that game in Nottingham. if there was a crowd, i don’t remember.
‘i was a decent cricketer. i had captained my school. But i was just chuffed to be asked to play in this one. i was a kid living in digs away from home for the first time. i was being paid £4.50 a week at forest but my digs cost £4. That left me with 50p a week!’
storey-Moore’s career took him far enough. He scored 105 league goals for forest and played once for England before moving to Manchester United after a switch to Clough and Taylor’s Derby side collapsed in 1972.
‘Brian never spoke to me again,’ said storey-Moore. ‘i don’t know why. it wasn’t my fault the deal fell through. it made me sad, though. i guess it’s funny that i played cricket with Cloughie but never quite managed to play for his football team.’
The cricket match was played at Wilford Lane in West Bridgford, so the players would have been able to see the stands of the City Ground that day in 1962. it was a one- off game but it didn’t end there for everybody.
Pleat and Taylor, for example, were part of another footballheavy group who travelled with the Nottingham Taxis Cricket Club to a festival in skegness.
‘i don’t recall much about the cricket on that trip,’ laughed Pleat. ‘But i do know that two of our team — who i won’t name — snuck into the local Butlin’s one night to see if they could meet some girls. They got in OK but got collared on the way out!
‘i liked Peter and he looked out for me. He was a good cricketer but during the tea break all the talk would be about football. it couldn’t happen now, could it? Maybe that is what makes them such special memories.’
‘I told Cloughie I was a keeper and he sent me to third man. He wasn’t even captain!’