August 14, 1982 – Gladstone Small bowled an 18-ball over to start the game

Middlesex led by John Emburey toured Courtaulds Ground in Coventry to face Warwickshire in 1982 when they were well on top of the table and on their way to the championship title. The visiting side elected to bat first with Colin Cook and Wilfred Slack opening the innings. Gladstone Small began the proceedings for the hosts with the ball. The Barbados-born player was just making an impression in the first-class circuit with his right-arm pace.

Gladstone moved to England after turning 14 and made his debut for Warwickshire in 1980 at the age of 19. The pacer had issues with his run-up as he often ended up bowling a lot of no-balls. This problem haunted Small during his early days only to keep them down when he played for the national team. Gladstone had one of those nightmare instances when he failed to land his foot behind the crease in the home game against Middlesex.

Nearly three overs at once:

Gladstone ran into Cook and Slack to bowl the first over the game that continued for as many as 18 balls! The pacer ended up bowling a whopping 11 no-balls in the over. Attempting to complete the over quickly, Small delivered a wide as he missed his line and length trying to land his foot inside the popping crease. Umpire Bill Alley, who himself played 400 first-class matches, called the over and must have been one happy man at the end as he had to cautiously keep count of the balls.

The Warwickshire skipper, Dennis Amiss reportedly said, “When I said give us three or four quick overs at the start, I didn’t mean all at once.” describing the long over from Small. A few days later, Small delivered 20 no-balls in the 12 overs against Worcestershire. (Note: Small’s over is mentioned to be 18-ball over as per the 1982 Winter annual of ‘The Cricketer’. However, some sources mention that the over was 17 balls as it included only 10 no-balls)

An innings defeat:

After a long over from Gladstone, Middlesex went on to make 360/8 before they declared at the end of the first day’s play. The home side, that lost the services of Alvin Kallicharran with the bat, was bundled out for 174 in their first innings as Wayne Daniel bagged a 5-wicket haul. They wouldn’t have managed that kind of a total if not for the 142-run 5th wicket partnership between Asif Din and Paul Smith who scored 102 and 45 respectively.

Their 2nd innings was even shorter as the skipper Amiss top-scored for Warwickshire with 41 and they were bowled out for only 120 runs and lost the game by an innings and 66 runs. Middlesex earned 23 points from this game to extend their lead on top of the table. They emerged as winners of the championship and had 325 points after 22 matches; 39 points more than the next best Leicestershire (286 points).

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