June 3, 1953 – When a flying glove caused hit-wicket dismissal of Alan Revill

Derbyshire took on a formidable Surrey team at The Oval in their 7th match of the 1953 County Championship. The Derby team won only two of their first six matches and earned no points in the remaining four games. On the other hand, the Surrey team played five games before facing Derby. They won three of their first five matches and took the first-innings lead in the other. Surrey’s bowling attack was quite good at that point as they could induce results on even the batting surfaces of The Oval.

Derbyshire won the toss and elected to bat first in the game that began on June 3rd. The Derbyshire began the quest of a respectable total as they reached 50 losing only one wicket. The home team skipper Walter Surridge claimed the wicket of Charles Elliot. Arnold Hammer and Derby skipper Guy Willatt added 35 for the second wicket before the left-arm bowler Graham Lock broke the partnership to bring the No.4 batsman Alan Revill to the crease.

The flying glove

Alan Revill got off the mark with a single off Graham Lock and was set to face Alec Bedser at the other end. Bedser nailed a sharp bouncer which Revill tried to play it away but ended up getting hit on his right hand. The ball struck Revill’s hand so hard that he shook his hand in pain which resulted in the glove crashing the footing of the stumps.

One of the bails was dislodged due to the thrust of the glove on the stumps. The Surrey fielders soon appealed for hit-wicket and the umpire gave it out as the ball was not dead by the time the bail came out of the groove. Hence, Alan Revill had to walk back scoring only one run and with the discomfort caused by the blow on his hand.

Yet another win for Surrey

Alec Bedser claimed a 5-wicket haul as Derbyshire were bowled out for 107 in their first-innings losing their last nine wickets for only 57 runs. Surrey, in reply, were blown away by Cliff Gladwin’s 8-wicket haul as they were bundled out for 115 losing their last four wickets for mere two runs. The happiness of keeping down Surrey’s lead to 8 runs didn’t last long for the visitors who posted only 126 in the second essay.

The hosts got a target of 119 which they chased down losing only two wickets as opener David Fletcher smashed an unbeaten 64. Surrey went on to win the Championship by earning 184 points with help of 13 victories while no other team got more than 168 points and 11 wins. Derbyshire finished joint 6th as they had 136 points with nine wins.