On this day: Gladstone Small ends up bowling an 18-ball over

Gladstone Small was one of the many cricketers who found an opportunity to play cricket for England rather than for his home country. The Barbados-born moved to England at the age of 14 and in five years, he was playing first-class cricket for Warwickshire. The left-arm pacer had issues with his run-up and he turned out to be a regular customer at bowling no-balls. This caused him to deliver a freakish over during a County Championship match.

Warwickshire hosted Middlesex in the 1982 season at the Courtaulds Ground in Coventry who were the County Championship toppers. Middlesex, led by John Emburey, elected to bat first on winning the toss and sent in Colin Cook and Wilfred Slack to open the innings. The home team skipper Dennis Amiss handed the ball to Gladstone Small to start the proceedings. Gladstone was having a decent season as he picked 40 wickets from 16 matches and also took his maiden 7-wicket haul against Yorkshire.

Three times of an actual over!

The issues with the run-up of Gladstone got worse in the very first over of the match as he ended up bowling a plethora of no-balls. Though the exact number of no-balls he bowled varied by various sources, the 1982 Winter annual of ‘The Cricketer’ mentioned that the left-arm pacer bowled as many as 11 no-balls. The over was extended up to 18 balls as Gladstone bowled a wide while trying to complete the over by taking a short run-up.

Bill Alley, who stood in more than 400 first-class matches as umpire, called the first over bowled by Gladstone Small.

“When I said give us three or four quick overs at the start, I didn’t mean all at once,” the Warwickshire captain, Dennis Amiss admitted to having told Gladstone after the first over came to an end finally.

An easy win for Middlesex!

Middlesex went on to post 360/8 on the opening day itself and declared at the stumps. Warwickshire lost the services of Alvin Kallicharran who was absent hurt. The home team got bowled out for 174 in their first innings despite Asif Din scoring 102. Their batting performance didn’t improve in the second innings either, as they collapsed from 64/1 to 120/10 and lost the match by an innings and 66 runs. Middlesex went on to win the championship by earning 325 points from the 22 matches played.