Your favourite Sussex CCC line-up

[Martlet]

Don't think Speight really fulfilled his promise. He always looked good but an average of 31 didn't do justice to his talents.

He was one of several players to depart in 1996 (along with Alan Wells, Giddins, Salisbury and Law). That ultimately had a positive effect as it led to the Night of the Long Knives in March 1997 - I still remember the buzzing atmosphere in the Metropole that night, it felt like a revolution (which it was really)

Speight was on fire - looked a dead-cert for England reckoning, until he was struck down by a mystery virus he picked up on a winter tour, which I think developed into ME.
Desperately disappointing for him, and his move to Durham never really came to anything.

Fond memories of the team in those days, Wellsy, David Smith & Bill Athey opening, Big Franklin and Ed Giddins steaming up/down the hill, and fat Eddie and Ian "rank four an over" Salisbury spinning in tandem.
It wasn't a patch on the team that Pigott, Moores and Adams put together though - far more brutal in execution. Could do with a bit of that these days....

 

[Big_Unit]

Two of those you mentioned coached me.

I played club cricket with John Denman for a bit after he retired. Still made the ball talk, in any conditions. Lovely chap too.

 

[hans kraay fan club]

Wells
Joyce
Goodwin
Adams
Hoppo
Prior
Imran
Le roux
Kirtley
Mushy
Lewry

 

[Big_Unit]

Limited to those I actually saw play:

Gehan Mendis (scored a double hundred in the first Championship match I ever saw at Hove)
Ed Joyce (just bloody lovely to watch when he's in full flow)
Murray Goodwin (six off the last ball to win the league? No problem...)
Paul Parker (probably my favourite Sussex player ever)
Chris Adams* (the best skipper in the country for three or four years)
Matt Prior (saw him score 100 on his Test debut. Emotional)
Imran Khan (the best player I ever saw wear the martlets)
Garth Le Roux (superb bowler but gave it a proper biff with the bat too)
Franklyn Stephenson (best slower ball ever)
Mushtaq Ahmed (total ledge, obviously)
James Kirtley (if only for the 2006 C&G Final, which he won on his own by force of will)

 

[In The Rough]

James Kirtley (if only for the 2006 C&G Final, which he won on his own by force of will)

That is very harsh on Jeremy Lloyd who did an excellent job on Stuart Law that day.

 

[Big_Unit]

Haha! I remember that now you've reminded me. Not the best decision... mind you, this is quite amusing.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XXCpH18hvWo

 

[LamieRobertson]

I'd have Roger Prideaux in there as I quite liked his name

 

[Seagull58]

And Mendis was another local in terms of schooling. I think he actually got better when he moved to Lancs - but we should never have let him go.

Yeah, I saw him playing in our school team.

 

[KingKev]

Great Thread, my line up would be
1. Wessels
2. Miandad
3. Parker
4. Greig
5. Nawab (never saw him play but Grandad use to work for him and Dad played football with him)
6. Imran (My favourite Sussex Cricketer)
7. Le Roux
8. Prior
9. Lewry (Mother in Laws cousin and very under rated)
10.Snow
11. Mushtaq.

Ooh, close but Ranjitsnjhi up to 3, Parker 4, Greig 5. Prior has to bat above Garth, and I'd take the Goff ahead of Lewry. Alan Wells as twelfth man.

 

[KingKev]

Ooh, close but Ranjitsnjhi up to 3, Parker 4, Greig 5. Prior has to bat above Garth, and I'd take the Goff ahead of Lewry. Alan Wells as twelfth man.

Mmmm no place for Dexter or Parks...can we play 13 a side?

 

[Garry Nelson's teacher]

Mmmm no place for Dexter or Parks...can we play 13 a side?

Yes, no problem: I've personally negotiated this deal with the organisers of the 'Dream Teams' Championship'. They feel so sorry for us in our present state (we've recovered from 5 for 3 against Kent earlier this afternoon!) that they've generously agreed to let us play 13 against other teams' X1s. Mind you, with some of our suggested line-ups, we might well need the extra 2............................

 

[Neville's Breakfast]

Is there room for Gehan Mendis ? One of my favourite Sussex openers and a nice bloke. Me and a mate were regulars at the nets in the Arthur Gilligan stand in the late 70s and Gehan Mendis was one of the coaches. One of our proudest moments was when he came over and chatted to us while we were watching him play in a county championship match one day at Hove.

 

[Moshe Gariani]

Wells
Joyce
Goodwin
Adams
Hoppo
Prior
Imran
Le Roux
Kirtley
Mushy
Lewry

A well chosen XI. Strength in ALL departments....

 

[Garry Nelson's teacher]

A well chosen XI. Strength in ALL departments....

Agreed, but not sure about Wells (Alan?) as an opening bat? Bowling line-up looks good.................

 

[Garry Nelson's teacher]

Is there room for Gehan Mendis ? One of my favourite Sussex openers and a nice bloke. Me and a mate were regulars at the nets in the Arthur Gilligan stand in the late 70s and Gehan Mendis was one of the coaches. One of our proudest moments was when he came over and chatted to us while we were watching him play in a county championship match one day at Hove.

The joy of this exercise is that if you want him then he's in! He's pretty much a contemporary of mine so watched his career with interest. He goes into the category of one of the best players not to get an England cap. I'd put him in the same class as Alan Wells and Paul Parker who both (just) did earn a cap whereas Gehan didn't. In an earlier era Ken Suttle and Peter Graves might be considered of the same calibre too.

Without putting on rose-coloured spectacles, I think it was harder to get into the England team in those days simply because there were so many more England-qualified players - although to counter this, there were the 'one-cap wonders' who used to get thrown in to the final test match of the summer at The Oval and then disappear off the radar forever,

Then there was the issue of the advantages of playing for a fashionable vs. an unfashionable county (it didn't hurt to be a Middlesex player making your county runs at Lords). I don't think Sussex players were on the wrong end of this as much as those who played for sides like Glamorgan, but sometimes you did wonder.

 

[Lower West Stander]

And Mendis was another local in terms of schooling. I think he actually got better when he moved to Lancs - but we should never have let him go.

Not the sharpest tool in the box.

May be my memory playing tricks but when I lived in Manchester I'm sure he got caught kerb crawling in a sponsored car......

 

[Gwylan]

He goes into the category of one of the best players not to get an England cap.

I agree. He was very unlucky not to be capped. I've often thought that the English players who hadn't been capped would make an interesting book. Sussex had another great opener - John Langridge - who didn't play for England. He scored 34,000 runs at an average of over 37, a great record for that period.

Mind you, Glamorgan players suffered even more. Alan Jones scored even more runs and didn't get capped and Don Shepherd, the off-spinner took more than 2,200 wickets at an average of 21 and didn't get a look in - that's simply incredible.

Without putting on rose-coloured spectacles, I think it was harder to get into the England team in those days simply because there were so many more England-qualified players - although to counter this, there were the 'one-cap wonders' who used to get thrown in to the final test match of the summer at The Oval and then disappear off the radar forever

The main reason it was harder to get in was that there were fewer test matches: there wasn't a tour every winter and generally only one touring team per summer. Look at Jack Hobbs: 22 years between his first and last tests and yet he played just 61 internationals. He probably be close to 200 if he'd played now

There are still one-test wonders. Mike Smith played one test nearly 20 years ago, Darren Pattinson played one test and was scarcely seen again, Simon Kerrigan played three years ago, I'm not sure that we'll see him again. Scott Borthwick and Jake Ball have played one test each, they may well appear again but I wouldn't count on it

 

[hans kraay fan club]

A well chosen XI. Strength in ALL departments....

The team night out, would be a decent affair, I'd reckon.

 

[Neville's Breakfast]

I agree. He was very unlucky not to be capped. I've often thought that the English players who hadn't been capped would make an interesting book. Sussex had another great opener - John Langridge - who didn't play for England. He scored 34,000 runs at an average of over 37, a great record for that period.

Mind you, Glamorgan players suffered even more. Alan Jones scored even more runs and didn't get capped and Don Shepherd, the off-spinner took more than 2,200 wickets at an average of 21 and didn't get a look in - that's simply incredible.


The main reason it was harder to get in was that there were fewer test matches: there wasn't a tour every winter and generally only one touring team per summer. Look at Jack Hobbs: 22 years between his first and last tests and yet he played just 61 internationals. He probably be close to 200 if he'd played now

There are still one-test wonders. Mike Smith played one test nearly 20 years ago, Darren Pattinson played one test and was scarcely seen again, Simon Kerrigan played three years ago, I'm not sure that we'll see him again. Scott Borthwick and Jake Ball have played one test each, they may well appear again but I wouldn't count on it

Paul Parker was similarly unlucky. Remember the 'Parker for England ' chants. It felt like a no brainer to the good people of Sussex but was it only one test he played ? It seemed a lot harder to break in in those days although I take your point about fewer test matches played.

 

[Mo Gosfield]

My all-time favourite Sussex Xi would include Giles Cheatle, Austin Edward Werring Parsons, Paul Philipson, Jerry Morley, John Spencer, Roger Philip Twells Marshall, Tony & Mike Buss, John Denman and Peter Graves but that is another story altogether.

Austin Edward Werring Parsons.
Do younger readers realise what this man achieved? He came over from New Zealand and set targets that no living Sussex cricketer has neared, before or since. No woman in the Brighton and Hove area was safe whilst the blond bomber was around. One after another, he went through them like a plague of locusts through a cornfield.
Picked to play against the touring Australians at Hove ( 1975? ) he was about 20 something not out overnight. Not for Mr. Parsons a cup of cocoa and an early night, no siree. To put it bluntly, he was at it all night. Result....141 next day!
Legend doesn't do the man justice. We should all doff our caps in silent and envious admiration.