July 3, 1972 – When Keith Pont used a bicycle to change ends during a county match

Essex toured Burton-on-Trent during the 1972 County Championship to face the Derbyshire team at the Ind Coope Ground. Coming into the game, Essex featured in eight matches during the tournament out of which they won two and lost one. The Derby team had played seven games by then and were yet to register an outright victory. However, they lost in only one match while another six ended in a draw (One game was abandoned).

Essex batted first in the game which began on July 1st and were bowled out for 222 on the opening day itself. Brian Ward was the top-scorer for the visitors with 53 and shared a 63-run partnership for the 4th wicket with Keith Boyce (44). The opening bowlers Michael Hendrick and David Wilde claimed three wickets apiece while their Derby skipper Ian Buxton ran through the middle-order with a 4-wicket haul. The home team finished the day on 22/0 and resumed after a rest day on July 2nd.

A bicycle ride between two ends of the venue!

Derbyshire had an opening stand of 95 as Peter Gibbs and Ian Hall scored 50 and 49 runs respectively. But Boyce and John Lever pulled back Essex into the game by bundling them out for only 193 by end of the second day’s play. Lever finished with a 5-wicket haul by dismissing the bottom three for a duck. Derbyshire was doing well in the reply having scored 183 for the loss of five wickets before Lever took four of the remaining five wickets.

The hosts lost their last four wickets for just one run only to concede a first-innings lead of 27 runs. Essex’s batting all-rounder Keith Pont was placed at the third-man position by the Essex keeper-captain Brian Taylor for most part of the Derbyshire innings on the 2nd day. In fact, Pont was made to field at third-man on both the ends and he was soon bored of switching the ends by jogging along the ground.

Hence, Keith Pont decided to borrow a stray bicycle from a spectator and began to switch ends by taking a ride on the bicycle along the square boundary. Pont used to park the bicycle outside the boundary rope on the end he was fielding. His antiques left his Essex teammates in splits including Keith Fletcher who was known to be grim towards the funny acts on the field.

A thrilling final day

Keith Fletcher smashed 80 as Essex made 171/5 in 59 overs before declaring the innings. Derbyshire began the 201-run chase with contributions from Peter Gibbs (31), Michael Page (40) and Ashley Harvey-Walker (46). They reached 116/3 and soon moved to 143/5 and stood 58 runs away from a victory. But the last five wickets fell for only 16 runs as Derbyshire lost the match by 41 runs.