Western Daily Press (Saturday)
Somerset legend Ken’s passion for cricket remains as strong as ever
John Wright talks to Ken Palmer, former Somerset and England cricketer who went on to become one of the great Test Match umpires. It was during one of those Tests that he played a small part in Shane Warne’s ‘ball of the century’. He still calls Taunton home and is in Somerset’s Hall of Fame
WHEN Ken Palmer MBE first strode to the crease for Somerset’s first team in 1955, topping the UK singles charts was Tennessee Ernie Ford’s Give Me Your Word, its second line “Your love will never die.”
If it was love for cricket he was singing about then Palmer was his man, just as Number 4 song the day he retired from umpiring in 2002 was Eminem’s Cleanin’ Out My Closet, Palmer’s loft today being full of almost half a century’s worth of treasured cricketing memories.
Palmer was an all-rounder who, at the age of 24 in 1961, became Somerset’s first player since the Second World War to achieve the double of 1,000 First Class runs and 100 wickets in a season.
That summer Palmer scored 1,036 runs at an average of 25.90, including a best of 125 not out.
He bowled 965 overs, 248 of which were maidens and took 114 wickets at an average of 20.32 (a wicket every 20 balls), which included seven games in which he had five or more wicket hauls.”
It was while he spent the winter in his early 20s playing for Bristol City reserves that his dad suggested to him that he was a better cricketer than footballer.
Palmer played first-class cricket for Somerset until 1969, scoring 7,771 runs at an average of 20.72. He took a total of 900 wickets over all competitions, 866 of them in firstclass cricket, his best bowling figures being nine for 57 against Notting- hamshire in 1963. The statistic he remembers even more fondly was his seven for 37 against Lancashire at Old Trafford because he bowled all seven of those batsmen out.
“I’ve lived in Taunton most of my life,” Palmer, 81, said from his Taunton home, explaining that he was born in Winchester, Hampshire, and went to Southbroom Secondary Modern School (now Devizes School) in Devizes and lived at 64 Forty Acres Road.
“My dad was a fine cricketer. He used to bowl me out with his spinners and played football for Devizes Town. I used to take the oranges down for him at half time,” he said.
At 15, Palmer was invited to Surrey for a nets session with Andy Sandham and Alf Gover.
“Although I never missed a ball, Andy said I didn’t pick my bat up straight enough but they didn’t seem interested in me.”
Sandham later became a Surrey scorer and, spotting Palmer getting runs one day, asked the Somerset scorer who the batsman was – and was told!
“I then got a trial with Hampshire but there was no room on the junior academy staff.
“I once got 48 when the umpire got injured by a ball.
“When they asked if anyone could stand in for him my dad volunteered and gave me out LBW second ball.
“I was asked to play as an amateur for expenses only but I wanted to be a professional.
“I was getting a lot of runs playing men’s club cricket for Devizes and Mr Pearce asked my dad if I’d like a trial for Somerset.
“I said yes. I’d travel home to Devizes; it was the first time I’d been away from home.”
The 15-year-old Palmer played for Somerset Dragons and the 2nd Xl, scoring a hundred at Sidmouth, and Maurice Tremlett taught him to bowl out-swingers.
“We used to sweep the stands and pick up grass clippings. ‘ Somerset and Surrey’ they used to say down The Ring Of Bells pub,” Palmer says.
“Where Surrey were always top and we were always bottom. I signed one of my early contracts in there.”
Palmer’s brother, Roy, also played for Somerset and became a firstclass and Test match umpire, and his son, Gary, was another all-rounder for Somerset.
Gary now has his own coaching
“I think it’s easier to play than to umpire,” he says.
“You make mistakes although you’ve got the DRS [Decision Review
System] now”
KEN PALMER
academy in Oxford and has coached international players, England Test and county cricketers, the last being Alastair Cook.
“I coached Oxford University’s side at Oxford and during the Easter holidays I coached at Lord’s,” Ken says, “where I also had the privilege of coaching Prince Andrew.”
Palmer’s first-class bowling average of 21.34 was better than contemporaries Australian Bill Alley (22.68), Fred Titmus (22.37) and Trevor Bailey (23.13), as well as Ian Botham’s (27.22), and Palmer’s sixth wicket partnership (265) with Alley in 1961 still stands as a Somerset record.
He also played one Test for England, against South Africa in 196465, and was 12th man for England in two other Tests.
Eventually the time came for him to stop hurling balls at players and make polite suggestions to them instead, in his new role as umpire.
He became one of England’s longest-serving umpires, officiating for 22 Tests (1978-1994), 23 ODIs (19772001), 13 finals at Lord’s and a Gillette Cup.
“I think it’s easier to play than to umpire,” he says.
“You make mistakes although you’ve got the DRS (Decision Review System) now.”
With an Ashes series on the horizon what are his views on sledging?
“When Allan Border’s players moaned about an English umpire he said ‘This lot are the best in the world, so shut up and get on with it!’
“But even Border would put his 10p worth in if things weren’t going right.”
Palmer remembers other instances of vocal encouragement. “Once, Robin Smith stood by me at square leg, shouting, ‘C’mon lads, if we get one, we’ll get them all!’ Only trouble was Australia’s total was something like 500 for four!”
His longevity meant he witnessed some extraordinary scenes.
Did he remember the so-called ‘ball of the century’, Shane Warne’s first ball against England, in his first Ashes Test in 1993, and Mike Gatting’s look of disbelief when it bowled him?
“I was the one that put the bails back on,” says Palmer, who umpired with Dickie Bird that day.
He added: “Gatting could play spin with a stick of rhubarb but he didn’t play that ball.”
A treasured memory for Palmer the player was winning the prestigious Single-Wicket Championship at Scarborough in 1963, a competition comprising England’s best 16 allrounders, including Trueman, Trevor Bailey and Ray Illingworth .
“You had to get as many runs as you can in six overs, one bowler against one batsman with junior Yorkshire professionals doing the fielding.”
His prize was £250 (equivalent to more than £4,000 today) and the Carling Trophy.
And not surprisingly for a man with Somerset in his blood Palmer thinks England are missing a key ingredient for the Ashes series this summer.
“I think James Hildreth should have been given a go in the England team.
“He should have gone to Sri Lanka and I think he could have been called up any time over the last four years. 43.45 is a bloody good batting average.”
Other favourite memories include touring with the International Cavaliers, bowling opposite Fred Trueman.
One tour to the West Indies, with Trueman and Jim Laker, was against a West Indies side led by Frankie Worrall.
Palmer said: “When I shook hands with Dennis Compton, our captain, after his century he said, ‘You never forget it, Ken.’
“We went all round the Caribbean; the wickets looked like a glasstopped table I’ve got. Not a bloody blade of grass on it.
“There were a load of West Indian lads sat up on the sightscreen in the heat of the sun where I fielded shouting, ‘Hey Palmer, man, you’re going to fry like an egg! You don’t want to stay there too long!’”
Well, Palmer man’s 49 years in cricket suggests he stuck around for quite a long time after all.