Captain Mike was a key figure in county’s first team line up
» CRICKET lovers everywhere, but long standing followers of Gloucestershire County Cricket Club in particular, will have been saddened to learn that Mike Procter died recently, as reported in this newspaper (on February 22, 2024).
Members of Cheltenham Cricket Society will recall the honour of having him as guest speaker at their summer meeting only 18 months ago.
He was a key figure in the county’s first team line up from 1968 to 1981 and as captain in the 1970s made Gloucestershire one of the elite sides in the county championship and one day competitions.
Born in Durban, South Africa, Mike first came to England as a member of his country’s school boy team. Gloucestershire wooed him to the Bristol fold in 1965 when he was 19 and he spent a season with the second XI. Graduating to the first side his impressive performances soon raised the county side’s profile significantly.
In 1971 Mike Procter scored the fastest century of the season in 79 minutes.
Three years later he hit four centuries in 11 days and at the Cheltenham Festival notched up hundreds against Worcester and Warwickshire. Gloucestershire won the Gillette Cup at Lord’s in 1973, Mike Procter pivotal to the victory with his contribution of 94 runs and two wickets for 27.
Those who were at the 1977 Cheltenham Festival will remember the astonishing innings by Mike Procter, by then county captain who scored a century before lunch against Worcestershire.
When play began Worcester were a man short because Basil D’oliveira (Worcester) and Brian Brain (Gloucestershire) who were travelling to the game together, were stuck in a traffic jam on the M5.
To ensure a prompt start to the day, it was agreed that Gloucestershire player Jim Foat would field for Worcester. Mike Procter had scored about 15 when he skied a ball directly to Jim Foat on the boundary. The unfortunate Mr Foat was then faced with a few agonising seconds to ponder the implications of dismissing his own captain. What to do?
As luck would have it, the sun came out, shone in Jim Foat’s eyes, the ball fell a few feet to his left and as has already been mentioned, Mike Procter hit an unbeaten 100 before the interval.
It was also in 1977 that the county’s cricket side, known as Proctershire in honour of its captain, beat Hampshire by eight runs in a one day, white knuckle finish final at Lord’s in the B&H Cup. In the semi final of that competition incidentally, Mike Procter took six wickets for 13 runs.
The double century Procter scored in Archdeacon Meadow at the 1978 Gloucester Festival against Essex was described by Wisden as the best innings seen in the city since Wally Hammond’s heyday.
Rapid scoring was a hallmark of his style. In 1979 Procter hit 93 runs in 46 minutes v Somerset and a century v Northants in 57 minutes. His statistics are remarkable. In 259 matches for Gloucestershire Mike Procter scored 32 centuries, took 833 wickets and made 209 catches.
Fans love all rounders and Mike Procter was the genuine article. But figures don’t tell the whole story. For instance that a buzz went round the ground whenever he was on the field, because the crowd knew he was likely to make something exciting happen at any moment. Or that he was an inspirational and charismatic captain who led from the front, but also managed to coax peak performances from everyone in the team.
Riche Benaud described Mike Procter as “a marvellous all rounder who would have walked into any test team since the war”. Unfortunately, Procter only played in seven tests, all coincidentally against Australia, because South Africa was banned from international sport during the apartheid era.
Procter’s playing days were over by the time the apartheid system was overthrown. But he was coach for South Africa when as tourists they played England at Lord’s for the first time in 29 years.
Flags are banned at Lord’s, but Mike Procter decided he was going to smuggle in the new South African flag to wave. He knew there were rumours of apartheid sympathisers bringing in the old South African flag and he wanted to counter it. He smuggled it in, and waved it on the Lord’s balcony, which became a hugely significant photograph coming out of the apartheid era.
After this display a commentator said to him “Proccy, you do realise that photo could well become so iconic, that it’ll overshadow all your heroics in cricket over 25 years?”
And Mike Procter chuckled, thought about it. Then said “I hope so.”
(The pictures seen here are taken from Mike Procter’s autobiography “Caught in the middle”, published by Pitch Publishing in 2017.)