No cricketer was more devastating on rain-affected pitches than Derek Underwood, who has died aged 78. ‘Deadly’, as he was known to friend and foe alike, took more Test wickets (297) than any other English spin bowler, and is sixth on the all-time list of English wicket-takers.
He played much of his career when the pitches outside the game were left uncovered and became an expert at exploiting ‘sticky dog’ surfaces. For Kent and England he took five wickets or more in an innings 153 times, including 17 in test matches.
His most famous major victories came against Australia in 1968 at the Oval, where seven wickets for 50 runs won England, allowing England to level the series with six minutes to spare in the final Test, and in 1972 at Headingley, where he had six. victims to secure the Ashes on a pitch full of fungi.
However, it would be wrong to suggest that Underwood was dependent on suspect deliveries for wickets. He did much of his most damaging work on very presentable surfaces, and was extremely difficult to play on any type of track. When the outdoor fields were completely abolished in 1981, his effectiveness did not noticeably decrease.
An unorthodox left-arm slow bowler, Underwood had a long, flat-footed run-up and delivered the ball at almost medium pace from the wide side of the crease, relying far less than the average spinner on flight and guile and more on subtle variations of the ball. pace. He could certainly spin the ball, but his real strength lay in his ultra-tight line and length, which piled the pressure on the batsmen until they burst.
A thin, pleasant man with a quiet, nervous character who lived for cricket and kept a detailed record of all his exploits. He begrudged every run scored from him, insisting that bowling was “a profession of low mentality: plug away, line and length, until an error occurs”. Of England’s left-arm spinners, only two have surpassed him in talent: Wilfred Rhodes and Hedley Verity.
Born in Bromley and then Kent, Derek was the son of Evelyn (née Wells) and Leslie Underwood, and attended Beckenham and Penge secondary school. He played for Farnborough and then Beckenham before signing for Kent in 1961. Two years later he made his debut against Yorkshire at Hull as a 17-year-old, picking up Ray Illingworth as his first victim and taking 100 wickets in his first campaign, the youngest player to do so in a debut season.
He exceeded 100 wickets for a second time in 1964, when he had his best figures of 9 for 28, against Sussex at Hastings on a dry, dusty wicket, and again in 1966, when he topped the national averages with 157 wickets of 13.80 each. and was called up for two home Tests against the West Indies at the age of 21. From 1968 he became a core member of England’s side, establishing his deadly reputation in the fifth and final Ashes Test against Australia at the Oval that year.
With England trailing 1-0 in the series, Australia were 85 for five on the final day when a thunderstorm soaked the ground. However, a desperate clearing operation by the crowd allowed play to be restarted with 75 minutes remaining, and in the final half-hour Underwood took the final four wickets for just six runs in 27 deliveries, securing his final scalp with only six minutes to go. and ending with 7 for 50.
It was one of the most dramatic finishes in Test history and although the win was not enough to prevent Australia retaining the Ashes, it leveled the series at 1-1 and was a major face-saver for England. Underwood later called it “the outstanding memory of my cricketing career”, and Wisden named him one of the cricketers of the year.
He took his 100th Test wicket and 1,000th first-class wicket in 1971, aged just 25, and in 1972 he had another memorable day in the ‘Fusarium Test’ at Leeds, where a fungus of that name landed on the pitch and caused problems . for the batsmen. After taking four wickets in Australia’s first innings, Underwood cruised through their second with 6 for 45, giving England a 2–1 lead in the series, allowing them to retain the Ashes. Two years later, on a more favorable pitch at Lord’s against Pakistan, he achieved his best Test figures of 13 for 71, consisting of five for 20 in the first innings and eight for 51 in the second.
In 1977, at the age of 32, Underwood became one of a handful of English players to sign up for Kerry Packer’s unauthorized World Series Cricket circus in Australia, and as a result was dropped from the Test side. When the WSC storm broke two years later, he was chosen for the 1979-80 series in Australia, where he played twelve Tests after his recall and was appointed MBE in 1981 for his services to cricket.
But in March the following year he finally burned his international bridges by joining a rebel tour of apartheid South Africa, after which he was exiled by England for three years and thrown overboard for good.
He remained at Kent until 1987, with whom he had been a major force in a glorious period from 1967 to 1978, winning three County Championships, three John Player League titles, three Benson & Hedges Cups and two Gillette Cups.
He appeared in 86 Tests, taking his 297 wickets at an average of 25.83, and could have claimed another 50 casualties had he not been involved with WSC and the Rebels tour. In all first-class cricket, he collected 2,465 wickets – placing him 14th on the all-time list – at 20.28.
A rather comical right-handed batsman at the tail end, he had an ungainly scoop shot as a stock in trade and was insecure against bouncers. Yet for many years he was England’s courageous nightwatchman, effective in that role even if he rarely looked comfortable at the crease. In 1984, in the twilight of his career, he posted an unlikely 111 for Kent against Sussex, the most unexpected century of the season.
After his playing days, he worked with his brother, Keith, for a company selling artificial cricket pitches, serving first as president of Kent in 2006 and then of MCC in 2008.
In 1973 he married Dawn Sullivan, and they had two daughters, Heather and Fiona.
• Derek Leslie Underwood, cricketer, born June 8, 1945; died April 15, 2024