Derek Shackleton

7th highest FC wicket taker of all time passes away.

Not a superstar player but the man was a genuinely wonderful man who was still incredibly passionate about cricket last time I saw him 6 years ago.

http://content-uk.cricinfo.com/england/content/current/story/312919.html

2857 wickets at 18.65 is none too shabby. With 194 5-wicket hauls and 38 10-wicket matches.


Looking at that most wickets list - how unlucky was Charlie Parker? Third highest wicket taker ever, 3278 wickets at 19.46 and he was only given one Test. That was against Warwick Armstrong's mighty side and his figures were 28-16-32-2. Hardly merited being dropped! Unluckiest one-cap wonder ever?

Very possibly.

Test match average of 16 and dumped!

Shackleton was a great bowler and an unlucky one who seems never to have complained about his luck.
The fact that two bowlers as good as Jackson and Shackleton managed a mere nine Tests between them, over many years, suggests two things. First, the limitations of the selection committees of the time before the early to mid 1950's, especially their reluctance to look to the less fashionable counties.
Second, the formidable glut of high quality pace bowlers in the later 1950's.
Shackleton and Jackson had far more grounds for grievance than Fred Trueman, but seemed never to nurse one.

Let it rest. Let him rest.

Botham, when he became an accurate medium-pacer in the twilight of his career, was nicknamed "Shackleton".

Derek Shackleton was notable for being the most prolific wicket-taker in fc cricket since the end of WWII outranking Lock, Titmus, Underwood, Trueman and Statham. He is also the third most prolific seamer of all time behind Jack Hearne and Alex Kennedy (whose Hampshire, though not career, aggregate Shackleton overtook). All three were military medium but deadly accurate.

The most prolific genuine quick of all time is probably Maurice Tate who is in 11th position in the all-time aggregate list, one place below WG (who was also fairly quick in his early days by all accounts). Like George Gunn and Les Jackson Shackleton also had a longer-than-a-decade interval between England appearances.

He was the only England player who appeared both in Sir Frank Worrell's first series in England in 1950 and his last in 1963 (Brian Close might have achieved this feat as he had made his England debut against New Zealand in 1949 and played in all 5 Tests in 1963 but was not considered for selection in 1950 owing to his National Service committments - although he was selected for the tour to Australia and New Zealand the following winter). It was Shackleton's recall match at Lord's in 1963 when he was 38 that was to prove the most remarkable becoming the closest to a tied Test that has occurred in England.

Shackleton opened the bowling with Fiery Fred (he had been recalled in place of Brian Statham and opened the bowling with Trueman in the next two Tests until Statham was recalled for the final Test at The Oval - at the expense of Titmus - when Shackleton was demoted to first change). He achieved the best figures of his truncated Test career taking 3-93 and 4-72 including almost taking a hat-trick at the end of the West Indies' 1st innings when he dismissed Solomon, Griffith and Gibbs in 4 balls. Prior to that he had bowled almost 50 overs without taking a wicket but giving away less than 2 rpo (it was hardly calypso cricket as the Windies ground out 301 runs from 133 overs). In the whole match he bowled 84 overs at a cost of 165 runs, a remarkable economy rate by modern, indeed any, standards.

However it was his batsmanship, or rather his lack of it (considering he had joined the Hampshire staff 15 years earlier as a batsman), that almost destroyed his good work with the ball. Coming in at No.11. he was run out for 4 by then relatively unathletic Worrell (who chose to race Shackleton to the stumps with the ball in his hand rather than take a shy at them - one wag later remarked that it was like watching two pensioners running for a bus) with two balls of the match left.

Normally that would have been the end but Cowdrey who had had his wrist broken by a Hall bouncer earlier in the innings came out to resume his innings, his arm in a cast (he played no further part in the series after this match). Fortunately, for England, Shackleton had been run out at the non-striker's end which left the two-armed David Allen, rather than the one-armed Cowdrey, to play back Hall's last two deliveries for a draw.

Shackleton and, later, the also recently-deceased Tom Cartwright were the premier examples of the stock medium-pace bowler who bowled line-and-length and whose wide delivery was a major aberration that was the gossip of the county circuit and who thrived in English conditions with several examples being on the books of every county until comparatively recently. However the selectors seemed to take the view that although they regularly appeared at or near the top of the fc averages they would be less successful on the truer batting wickets that Test cricket provided and the figures seem to have borne out their judgment although given Harmison's Brisbane nightmare and the seeming inability of England's international bowlers to place the ball in line with the stumps the emergence of a Shackleton or a Cartwright would be like manna from heaven.

I wonder if there is a Hampshire XI playing in the celestial firmament with Shackleton and Kennedy bowling at either end and John Arlott commentating? Not my definition of excitement, perhaps, but certainly a good definition of eternity!

Bowl in Peace, Derek! "Pavilioned in Splendour" as the hymn says.

Rob I wrote:Botham, when he became an accurate medium-pacer in the twilight of his career, was nicknamed "Shackleton".

'Botham', 'accurate'? 'Scuse me, but have I just entered a parallel universe?

Rob I wrote:Botham, when he became an accurate medium-pacer in the twilight of his career, was nicknamed "Shackleton".

Botham was a truly great bowler for the first half of his career. To compare him with Shackleton in the secod half of his career does Shackleton a grave injustice.

Shackleton would be a 100 test player today, and would walk into any of the test teams.

Sad to hear this news.

ten years after wrote:

Rob I wrote:Botham, when he became an accurate medium-pacer in the twilight of his career, was nicknamed "Shackleton".

Botham was a truly great bowler for the first half of his career. To compare him with Shackleton in the secod half of his career does Shackleton a grave injustice.

I think that nickname was meant as a joke. Like when they called him Guy the Gorilla, they didn't really intend that gorillas should be demeaned by comparison with Both.

Rob I wrote:

ten years after wrote:

Rob I wrote:Botham, when he became an accurate medium-pacer in the twilight of his career, was nicknamed "Shackleton".

Botham was a truly great bowler for the first half of his career. To compare him with Shackleton in the secod half of his career does Shackleton a grave injustice.

I think that nickname was meant as a joke. Like when they called him Guy the Gorilla, they didn't really intend that gorillas should be demeaned by comparison with Both.

I don't recall any reference to the nickname but I think it must have been intended ironically, as you suggest.

AYe Gorilla... that was his nickname early on.

Nice post by Allan D.