Derek Leslie Underwood (born 8 June 1945) is an English former international
cricket
Cricket is a bat-and-ball game played between two teams of eleven players on a field at the centre of which is a pitch with a wicket at each end, each comprising two bails balanced on three stumps. The batting side scores runs by st ...
er, and a former President of the
Marylebone Cricket Club
Marylebone Cricket Club (MCC) is a cricket club founded in 1787 and based since 1814 at Lord's Cricket Ground, which it owns, in St John's Wood, London. The club was formerly the governing body of cricket retaining considerable global influenc ...
(MCC).
Through much of his career, Underwood was regarded as one of the best
bowlers in Test cricket. Although classified as a slow left-arm orthodox spin bowler, Underwood bowled at around
medium pace and was often unplayable on seaming English wickets, particularly
sticky wickets, earning his nickname 'Deadly', and accounting for the saying that England would "carry Underwood like an umbrella, in case of rain". Underwood was noted for his consistent accuracy, and his inswinging
arm ball
In human anatomy, the arm refers to the upper limb in common usage, although academically the term specifically means the upper arm between the glenohumeral joint (shoulder joint) and the elbow joint. The distal part of the upper limb between t ...
was particularly noted for dismissing batsmen
leg before wicket
Leg before wicket (lbw) is one of the ways in which a batsman can be dismissed in the sport of cricket. Following an appeal by the fielding side, the umpire may rule a batter out lbw if the ball would have struck the wicket but was inste ...
.
Keith Dunstan wrote that he was "inclined to wear a hole in the pitch by dropping the ball on the same spot...".
Underwood was a
first-class bowler from his teens, and he took his 100th Test wicket and 1,000th first-class wicket in 1971, aged only 25. Only
George Lohmann and
Wilfred Rhodes
Wilfred Rhodes (29 October 1877 – 8 July 1973) was an English professional cricketer who played 58 Test matches for England between 1899 and 1930. In Tests, Rhodes took 127 wickets and scored 2,325 runs, becoming the first Englishman ...
had secured a thousand wickets at an earlier age than Underwood.
He used to say that bowling was a 'low mentality profession: plug away, line and length, until there's a mistake', and sooner or later every batsman would make a mistake. He would finish his Test career with 297 wickets, and had it not been for his involvement in
World Series Cricket and the rebel tour to South Africa, there is little doubt he would have had more than 300 Test wickets.
On 16 July 2009, Underwood was inducted into the
ICC Cricket Hall of Fame
The ICC Cricket Hall of Fame recognises "the achievements of the legends of the game from cricket's long and illustrious history". It was launched by the International Cricket Council (ICC) in Dubai on 2 January 2009, in association with the Fe ...
, along with others including
Neil Harvey,
David Gower
David Ivon Gower (born 1 April 1957) is an English cricket commentator and former cricketer who was captain of the England cricket team during the 1980s. Described as one of the most stylish left-handed batsmen of his era, Gower played 117 Te ...
and
Allan Border
Allan Robert Border (born 27 July 1955) is an Australian cricket commentator and former international cricketer. A batsman, Border was for many years the captain of the Australian team. His playing nickname was "A.B.". He played 156 Test ma ...
.
Early life and county career
Underwood was born in Bromley Maternity Hospital, the second son of Leslie Frank Underwood and Evelyn Annie Wells.
His early days were spent watching his father, a right-arm medium pace bowler, play for Farnborough Cricket Club, where older brother Keith also played.
[Crofton & Barlett, 2004, p. 6] Underwood was educated at
Beckenham and Penge Grammar School for Boys and in 1961 he took all ten wickets for the school's First XI, of which his brother was the captain, against
Bromley Grammar School.
Underwood played county cricket for
Kent
Kent is a county in South East England and one of the home counties. It borders Greater London to the north-west, Surrey to the west and East Sussex to the south-west, and Essex to the north across the estuary of the River Thames; it faces ...
, making his
first-class debut against
Yorkshire
Yorkshire ( ; abbreviated Yorks), formally known as the County of York, is a historic county in northern England and by far the largest in the United Kingdom. Because of its large area in comparison with other English counties, functions have ...
aged 17 in
1963
Events January
* January 1 – Bogle–Chandler case: Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation scientist Dr. Gilbert Bogle and Mrs. Margaret Chandler are found dead (presumed poisoned), in bushland near the Lane Co ...
. He became the youngest player to take 100
County Championship
The County Championship (referred to as the LV= Insurance County Championship for sponsorship reasons) is the domestic first-class cricket competition in England and Wales and is organised by the England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB). It b ...
wickets in a debut season.
He went on to take 100 wickets in a season a further nine times. His batting was less accomplished, averaging barely over ten runs per innings in 676 matches.
Test career
Underwood took the last four
Australian wickets in 27 balls in the final half an hour at the end of the fifth Test in 1968, after a heavy thunderstorm on the fifth day had all but ended the match, to square an
Ashes series that Australia were winning 1–0.
He was named in 1969 as one of the
Wisden Cricketers of the Year
The ''Wisden'' Cricketers of the Year are cricketers selected for the honour by the annual publication ''Wisden Cricketers' Almanack'', based primarily on their "influence on the previous English season". The award began in 1889 with the naming ...
. Underwood also toured
Australia in 1970–71, dismissing
Terry Jenner to win the seventh Test at
Sydney, and regain
the Ashes
The Ashes is a Test cricket series played between England and Australia. The term originated in a satirical obituary published in a British newspaper, '' The Sporting Times'', immediately after Australia's 1882 victory at The Oval, its first ...
.
According to the retrospective
ICC Test bowler rankings, Underwood was ranked number 1 in the world from September 1969 to August 1973. He reached a peak rating of 907 after his 12-wicket haul against New Zealand in the
1971 series.
World Series Cricket and rebel South African tour
Underwood was one of six England cricketers (the others being
John Snow
John Snow (15 March 1813 – 16 June 1858) was an English physician and a leader in the development of anaesthesia and medical hygiene. He is considered one of the founders of modern epidemiology, in part because of his work in tracing the ...
,
Alan Knott
Alan Philip Eric Knott (born 9 April 1946) is a former cricketer who represented England at international level in both Tests and One-Day Internationals (ODI). Knott is widely regarded as one of the most eccentric characters in cricket and as o ...
,
Dennis Amiss
Dennis Leslie Amiss (born 7 April 1943) is a former English cricketer and cricket administrator. He played for both Warwickshire and England. A right-handed batsman, Amiss was a stroke maker particularly through extra cover and midwicket – his ...
,
Bob Woolmer and
Tony Greig), to feature in
Kerry Packer
Kerry Francis Bullmore Packer (17 December 1937 – 26 December 2005) was an Australian media tycoon, and was considered one of Australia's most powerful media proprietors of the twentieth century. The Packer family company owned a controlling ...
's
World Series Cricket in the late 1970s.
He also went on the
rebel tour South Africa in 1981–82, bringing his England career to an end as it was in defiance of the sporting ban against the
apartheid
Apartheid (, especially South African English: , ; , "aparthood") was a system of institutionalised racial segregation that existed in South Africa and South West Africa (now Namibia) from 1948 to the early 1990s. Apartheid was ...
state. For this he and the other rebels were banned from international cricket for three years.
Later career
Underwood was almost unplayable on damp wickets, but on dry tracks he would often push the ball through a little quicker and flatter, not wanting to risk being hit over his head, which he always hated.
Oddly, he rarely completed a whole Test series for England, as a succession of England captains would switch to bigger turners of the ball, such as
Norman Gifford.
He scored his first and only first-class century (111) at the age of 39, in his 591st first-class match in July 1984. It was played at
Hastings
Hastings () is a large seaside town and borough in East Sussex on the south coast of England,
east to the county town of Lewes and south east of London. The town gives its name to the Battle of Hastings, which took place to the north-west a ...
, a favourite bowling haunt for Underwood who, having gone in to bat as
nightwatchman, finally reached the hundred mark in his 618th first-class innings. The cricket writer Colin Bateman noted, "there was no more popular century that summer".
Underwood retired from cricket in 1987, at the age of 42, having taken 2,465 wickets at a little over 20 apiece.
Recognition
Underwood was appointed an
MBE in the
1981 New Year Honours
The New Year Honours 1981 were appointments by most of the Commonwealth realms of Queen Elizabeth II to various orders and honours to reward and highlight good works by citizens of those countries, and honorary ones to citizens of other countries ...
for his services to cricket.
In 1997, he became patron of the
Primary Club The Primary Club is a charity based in Essex, England which raises money to provide sports and recreational facilities for the visually impaired. It was started in 1955 at Beckenham Cricket Club in Kent by four slightly inebriated young bachelors, d ...
, and in 2008 it was announced that he would serve as President of MCC for the following year.
In a ''
Wisden
''Wisden Cricketers' Almanack'', or simply ''Wisden'', colloquially the Bible of Cricket, is a cricket reference book published annually in the United Kingdom. The description "bible of cricket" was first used in the 1930s by Alec Waugh in a ...
'' article in 2004, he was selected as a member of England's greatest
post-war
In Western usage, the phrase post-war era (or postwar era) usually refers to the time since the end of World War II. More broadly, a post-war period (or postwar period) is the interval immediately following the end of a war. A post-war period ...
XI.
Underwood was appointed an
Honorary Fellow of
Canterbury Christ Church University
, mottoeng = The truth shall set you free
, established = 2005 – gained University status 1962 – teacher training college
, type = Public
, religious_affiliation = Church of England
, city ...
at a ceremony held at
Canterbury Cathedral on 30 January 2009.
Personal life
Underwood married wife Dawn in October 1973 and has two daughters.
He became a consultant for ClubTurf Cricket Limited, joining his brother Keith who had become managing director.
See also
*
References
Further reading
*
*
External links
*
Sunday Times article 31 May, 2009
{{DEFAULTSORT:Underwood, Derek
England One Day International cricketers
England Test cricketers
English cricketers of 1969 to 2000
English cricketers
Kent cricketers
Wisden Cricketers of the Year
World Series Cricket players
International Cavaliers cricketers
Cricketers at the 1975 Cricket World Cup
People from Bromley
1945 births
Living people
People educated at Beckenham and Penge County Grammar School
Presidents of the Marylebone Cricket Club
Marylebone Cricket Club cricketers
Presidents of Kent County Cricket Club
D. H. Robins' XI cricketers
T. N. Pearce's XI cricketers
Marylebone Cricket Club Under-25s cricketers
Marylebone Cricket Club President's XI cricketers