Where Are They Now? Gloucestershire 1977 Benson & Hedges Cup Winners

By Neil Fissler

GLOUCESTERSHIRE banished the myth that you don’t win anything with kids long before Sir Alex Ferguson and his team of Manchester United youngsters won the Premier League.

Gloucestershire only had the 1973 Gillette Cup to their name when they lined up against Kent in the Benson & Hedges Cup final four years later.

But Mike Procter’s side mainly thanks to Andy Stovold who scored 71 and took three catches to win the Gold Award upset the odds to win their second ever piece of silverware.

Stovold says that a large bulk of the Gloucestershire side were still considered juniors in the dressing room.

“We were youngish lads. I was 23, Graveney 23, Foat would have been the same, Shackleton was a bit older but maybe only 25, Partridge would have been 22 and Crawford even younger,” he said.

“But then you played in and around David Shepherd, Brian Brain, Mike Procter, Sadiq Mohammad and Zaheer Abbas so you have five senior players and six junior players.

“But I don’t think Kent would have held any fears for us even though if you’d gone down their line up on paper they’d have been a lot stronger. And in those days we’d have been seen as the underdogs because we were Gloucestershire and they were Kent.”

Gloucester had booked their place in the Lord’s final finishing top of their group after wins over Somerset by eight wickets and Lancashire, on a faster scoring rate, by 46 runs.

The only game they lost was to Hampshire by 8 wickets prior to beating Middlesex (176) by 18 runs in a home quarter-final. Hampshire (173) were seen off in the semi-final by eight runs, thanks in no small part to four wickets in five balls from skipper Procter.

“Proc (Procter) could roll off yorkers like they were going out of fashion. His four in five balls won us the semi-final,” said Stovold.

“We had a spell when we thought Nigel Cowley was going to take it away from us, despite being plum to Procter. That would have been four in four for him and it was the most plum of the lbws.

“So, when you have players like that running around, we probably got to the stage where we thought we were invincible.”

Stovold was involved in two significant partnerships in the final as well as taking a blinding catch. He said: “I was only talking about the Asif Iqbal catch last weekend when we had a ten-over charity game at Cheltenham. It was a flying top corner catch.”

With Sadiq (24) he put on 79 for the first wicket and then 65 with Zaheer (70) for the second, helping his side to 237-6. Kent never recovered from being 65-5, Brain doing the damaged with figures of 7.3-5-9-3 as they slumped to 173 all out and a 64-run defeat.

Stovold added: “We won the Gillette Cup in 1973 in my debut year, I think the final against Sussex was only my fifth game for Gloucestershire.

“Mike Procter told me that he knew he was a useless skipper when he gave a team talk before the final at Lord’s.

“He told me I was a senior player and to take my time and play sensibly but straight away I drove Kevin Jarvis down the ground for four.

“We went off at hell of a rate. I had 50 at lunch and we just kept going and carried it on when they went out to bat mainly thanks to Brian Brain.His figures were unbElievable.”

BACK ROW (LEFT-RIGHT): Bert Avery: Spent 40 years working for Shell at Avonmouth becoming Gloucestershire’s scorer in 1971 until 1987. Active at the club until his death in April 2002, aged 84.

Jim Foat: A batsman who is best remembered for his run out of Tony Greig in the 1973 Gillette Cup final. Lives in Exeter and has been a sales rep for a horticultural company.

Martin Vernon: Opening bowler went into media sales. Was director of Client Services & Commercial Partnerships for Express Newspapers.

Julian Shackleton: Medium pacer, son of Hampshire and England seamer Derek. Cricket pro at Canford School and Dorset bowling coach.

Brian Brain: A fast-medium bowler. Lives in Worcestershire and has worked in personal finance management and a director of Warwickshire textiles.

David Partridge: Medium pace bowler who studied civil engineering at university. Now a partner of Simpson Associates Consulting who construct commercial buildings.

Ian Crawford: Off-spinner. Has worked in the finance department at Airbus UK, in Filton, Bristol, since 1981 and has been president of the Bristol Youth Cricket League.

Andy Stovold: Wicketkeeper opening batsman who spent 35 years on the Gloucestershire staff as player and coach and is now a self employed coach.

FRONT ROW: David Graveney: Left-arm spinner whose father Ken and uncle Tom both played for Gloucestershire. A chartered accountant who was chairman of the PCA and chairman of selectors. Now national performance manager for the ECB.

David Shepherd: Batsman who went onto become one of the most recognisable umpire in world cricket. Died in Instow, North Devon, in October 2009 aged 68 after a long battle with cancer.

Mike Procter: South African all-rounder who became an ICC match referee. Now runs his own foundation and works as a motivational speaker.

Sadiq Mohammad: A Pakistani opening batsman with famous brothers Hanif and Mushtaq. Coached various domestic teams and worked for United Bank.

Zaheer Abbas: One of Pakistan’s finest batsman. Has worked as national team manager, he has his own academy in Karachi and is Pakistan’s chief cricket consultant.

NOT PICTURED: Phil Bainbridge: All-rounder has been a director of Rhodes Event Management for 24 years and sales director of Psychology Enhanced Performance.

John Childs: England spinner is still involved in the game and is academy director at Essex.

Alastair Hignell: Opening batsman who played rugby for England. His father Antony also played for Gloucester. He was a BBC journalist and is now living in Brighton.

Andy Brassington: Wicket-keeper-batsman became Gloucestershire’s marketing manager. Has run has run Find- ers-Keepers Sports & Marketing for 16 years.

Nicholas Cooper: Batsman who has been teaching geology at Westcliff HS for Boys, near Southend, for 30 years.