Jack Simmons life story - day two

After missing out on a contract with Northamptonshire in the early-60s, the recently-married cricketer had just taken a job at Lancashire County Council after finding promotion opportunities at Accrington Brick and Tile limited.

So the all-rounder kept on churning out runs and wickets as pro for Blackpool in the Northern League and settled for the hand that life had dealt him.

Jack said: "I played in a few games for Northants in the mid-60s. I thought my chance of playing for Lancashire had gone. My sister, Betty, lived in Northants, and her husband was the manager of a big textile place and knew a few people and they sent someone to have a look at me and invited me down.

"I played with Colin Milburn and John Larter and I did quite well and they were going to sign me on, but they couldn't do it until the end of the season. They had to release someone before they could take someone else on because of the budgets.

"They told me they were going to sack the left-arm spinner, but in the five games until the end of the season he took 35 wickets and they kept him on.

"They wanted me to stay, even though they couldn't sign me, but I'd got fed up of travelling to Northants so I said I'd play if they were struggling."

He added: "At 28, I thought my chance had already gone. What a lot of people don't know is that in between that time of not getting the opportunity of going when I was 21, I made inquiries but the chairman, coach and secretary had changed so nobody knew I was supposed to be going down. But that's what the coach at the time Stan Worthington told me to do. Tommy Greenhough later told me that they didn't like signing people who were already professionals. They liked to make the professionals."

Call it luck, good timing or karma, but opportunity knocked for Jack in 1968 with the introduction of one-day cricket and the all-rounder was able to take his opportunity with both hands.

Lancashire cricket had been in the doldrums in the 1960s but the new format shook the sleeping giant back to life.

And Jack was at the heart of what became a golden era for the Red Rose County.

Jack said: "When I was asked to go down to Lancashire the second time, by Buddy Oldfield, I received a letter asking me if I would play in the Second XI. I don't think the ink was dry by the time I replied.

"I was selected to play Derbyshire in Derby and I was asked, because I had a car, to pick someone up at Haslingden who would be playing in the second team as well. His name was Clive Lloyd. He was having to register in 1968 and do his qualifying year and so we went down and Clive and myself have been the best of friends ever since. To be there at that time was special."

He added. "I was lucky to get the opportunity. In the second team game I got a few runs and a couple of wickets so they picked me again to play against Warwickshire at Nelson and I got over 100 runs with the bat and eight wickets in the game.

"They were getting close to who they should be signing and they picked me for the first team, which was very unusual, for an amateur - not a professional, to be selected for the first team. So they picked me for a three-game tour.

"I hurt my neck playing at Blackpool so I had treatment and I had to phone Old Trafford and tell them I couldn't play. But they told me not too worry and to go to the club and Laurie Brown, who was the physio at Manchester United, came down after football training in the morning to the cricket ground in the afternoon he sorted it in no time.

"I missed the games at Essex and Glamorgan but I was able to make my debut against Northants at Blackpool on August 21, 1968. I didn't do exceedingly well as I got a one and a duck but I did get three wickets and they were quite pleased with what they had seen and at the end of that game I signed a contract as a full-time pro for 1969, which saw the start of the John Player League.

"I was lucky that I was arriving on the scene at the right time in many ways and that first year, in 1969, our first game was against Oxford at The Parks and they didn't send John Savage, who was the off-spinner, they sent me for a bit of experience. Again, I got two or three wickets and the next game was against the West Indies and I played in that as well and I did quite well and kept my place.

"Had the first couple of games been against Surrey and Yorkshire, John Savage would have played so I was very lucky.

"And my forte was probably one day cricket because I could bat a bit and I could bowl a bit, I was pretty accurate and I was hard to get away. We won the Players County League in 1969, the John Player League and Gillette Cup in 1970 and the Gillette in 71,72 and 75. We were the one-day kings. It was a wonderful time to be a Lancashire player.

"When you sit down and really think about it, somebody up there likes Jack Simmons and I always think it's my dad."

And the new Lancashire player was in some exhaulted company at the time as he played some alongside some of the county's all-time greats.

He said: "Woody (Barry Wood) and Bumble (David Lloyd) were as good an opening partnership as there was in any county at that time.

"Both played for England and I actually think England were a bit stupid in who they wanted to send to Australia and then India. David was excellent against spin and Woody was excellent against quicker bowlers and they sent Woody to India against the likes of Bishen Bedi and Bumble to Australia against Lillee and Thompson. How barmy can you be?

"After that we had Harry Pilling who was, to me, one of the greatest Lancashire players there has ever been. He was passionate for Lancashire and he loved a pint. I once saw him drink 10 pints and the next day he went out and got a hundred on a turning wicket.

"He got 26,000 runs for Lancashire and to see him batting with Clive Lloyd was unbelievable. Harry was about 5' 2'' and Clive was about 6' 4'' and they would meet in the middle and you can imagine what they looked like. They had some magnificent partnerships.

"The Lancashire team of the era stayed together for quite a while. Some people think it should have been broken up sooner but, if you look at it, we had so much success with what was basically the same group of players.

"We were all good players and we got on very well together."

Simmons on his "agency"

"Clive and I had two companies together. One was a tours company which I still run. The other was an agency.' I wish I'd have continued with it because I probably would have been the best agent and had the best professionals.

We didn't term ourselves agents, we were just placing players. Because I was in Tasmania, and playing against all the states of Australia, players would say: Jack, can you get me a job in the leagues?' There weren't many overseas players in county cricket then. And with Clive being the captain of the West Indies, he was getting asked by a lot of the younger players, lads who weren't in the Test side.

I brought the Waugh twins over, Simon O'Donnell, Geoff Lawson, Mark Taylor, Matt Hayden, Adam Gilchrist, Justin Langer, David Boon, Geoff Marsh, Joe Angel, Brad McNamara and a few others.

With the West Indies, I brought the likes of Michael Holding, Roger Harper, Richie Richardson, Ian Bishop, Wayne Daniel and Rohan Kanhai.

As time went on, a lot of the Test players were playing county cricket and we used to get them fixed up. My phone bill used to be a thousand pounds a quarter!

I wasn't an agency as such. We'd sign them up and I would take five per cent of their salary from the club because I wanted them to work together. I wasn't for one and I wasn't for the other.

I used to deal with Michael Holding's contract even when he went into county cricket. I brought him over to play league cricket and then Lancashire wanted him but he didn't want to play in all the games. Derbyshire said they would allow him to miss some and I negotiated his contract for him.

I saw him in Australia in the winter and he has stayed as one of my best friends as well.

If I'd have still been doing it I could have made quite a bit of brass because I had the phone numbers of all the Test players.

My knowledge of overseas players was probably second to none."

Simmons on Clive Lloyd "When I think of Jack Simmons, draughtsman at a brickyard, played for Enfield and you have Clive Lloyd as one of your best friends, it's quite unbelievable.

Clive led the West Indies to three World Cups and a lot of people say that with Joel Garner, Andy Roberts, Michael Holding, Desmond Haynes, Viv Richards etc playing they could have captained that side and that disappoints me.

Nobody understands the inter-island politics that he was up against. He was able to knit them together and they were a fabulous side. Clive was a superstar because they ruled the roost.

You would probably expect Clive to walk with a bit of a swagger, like Viv did when he walked out to the wicket, but Clive was never like that. He was always more reserved and he never acted like the superstar that he was. He was always a team man.

If Bondy (Jack Bond) wanted 20 quick runs after lunch, and Clive was on 60-odd, he would just go and do it. He wouldn't worry about not getting to his hundred.

He gave our batsman like Frank Hayes and Barry Wood so much confidence. I batted with him many times and we had some good partnerships to win games.

He was also one of the best fielders I have even seen. They talk about the fielding today but he was magnificent.

You could put him alongside the great South African Keith Bland. I can remember him running out Bernard Julian, who was playing for Kent in a Gillette Cup final, and he picked up the ball and threw down the stumps in one motion and we went on to win.

In the 1972 final, he got a hundred against Warwickshire and he just tore Bob Willis to pieces. He was pulling Willis off the front foot into the grandstand. He was fabulous but he was one of the lads and would always have a drink. We've been the best of friends for a long time and we still are.

I'm also very good friends with Both (Ian Botham). We used to have bets every year. We were always slightly overweight and he's bet me that he could lose more weight than me before we played each other again. I always won but I never got paid but he'd always take me out for a meal and a few drinks.

To a point, he was a hero of mine and it was always a challenge to bowl at him and Viv Richards when he played at Somerset."