Stars on Sunday: when the John Player League ruled the roost

Launched in 1969, it was played over 40 overs per side between the (then) 17 counties and ran until 1986 when it evolved into other limited-overs formats.

Many county cricket supporters fondly remember watching their team on Sunday afternoons throughout the summer. Indeed, to supporters of a certain age, the JPL was the competition that first attracted them to the game.

And at Surrey, as at every county, there were many memorable matches that took place at a host of different grounds. The Sunday League was fun, it was accessible, and it is just a pity that - for Surrey - they were one of seven counties who never lifted the John Player League trophy.

But, in early May in 1985, they did at least produce an unforgettable four-run win in a game at The Oval featuring no fewer than 604 of them. Full details later in this piece.

There was some initial resistance from the players and cricket purists, but the Sunday League immediately attracted huge crowds, reversing a declining trend in county cricket and delighting the sponsors.

A key aspect of the competition’s popularity was the weekly coverage on BBC2. With different counties featured each week, the players soon became household names.

In much of their advertising, John Player used the slogan ‘Bringing you the Best’ and with such an array of stars on show it was difficult to argue. The sight of world class cricketers such as Clive Lloyd or Barry Richards on rural club grounds may seem slightly incongruous today but became the norm on Sundays in the 1970s and 80s.

Surrey's highest finish in the John Player League was fifth in both 1969 and 1980, but they certainly played their part in establishing the competition on the domestic calendar from the very start.

In 1969, the competition’s first season (which went by the name of John Player’s County League) Surrey were the early pacesetters, winning their opening fixture against Worcestershire by just five runs, and remaining unbeaten until an even narrower result went against them, by four runs at Lancashire, at the end of May.

Their home form was excellent, with the only defeat coming on the final day of the season, but patchy away form, including key successive defeats in August, put paid to any chance of lifting the inaugural title and they finished three wins behind champions Lancashire.

Surrey featured in the match that produced the highest number of runs in the competition’s history, during the 1985 season. The Early May Bank Holiday weekend spectators at The Oval were treated to 604 runs, as Surrey posted their highest ever score in the competition.

Alec Stewart led the way with 86 from 57 balls, following an opening partnership of 80 from Alan Butcher and Grahame Clinton, in a total of 304 for 6.

Warwickshire recovered from losing opener Robin Dyer in the second over with only five runs on the board, as Alvin Kallicharran scored 70 and found good support from Geoff Humpage and Chris Old. Paul Smith and Anton Ferreira forged an aggressive partnership, 72 runs at a rate of eight per over, to move within 16 runs of victory with two overs remaining.

Graham Monkhouse bowled the decisive penultimate over, removing both established batsmen to stem the flow of runs, and although Warwickshire managed to score 300 it was four runs short of the Surrey total in a thrilling fixture.

Nine years earlier, Alan Butcher and Geoff Howarth produced the first double century partnership in the Sunday League. Coming just a week after they had combined for 142 against Derbyshire, they batted for a fraction under two hours against Gloucestershire at The Oval in a partnership worth 218.

Their first hundred took only 16 overs, and it seemed a certainty both would score individual centuries. But Butcher was bowled by Tony Brown for 96 to end the partnership, with Howarth achieving the milestone and going on to make 122 (his first of two JPL centuries, both coming in the 1976 season) in a winning total of 248 for 2.

While both of those records were set at The Oval, out-ground cricket was a much-loved feature of the John Player League. In total, 114 grounds hosted fixtures between 1969 and 1986, with Surrey using nine of them.

Aside from 101 matches held at The Oval, Guildford (15) and Byfleet (9) were the most popular, but the Sunday League also visited Sunbury on Thames, Leatherhead, Sutton, Godalming, Tolworth and East Molesey.

Graham Roope was the leading JPL run-scorer for Surrey, amassing 4,434 runs at a tick under 30 from 1969 to 1982. Robin Jackman’s Sunday League career ran alongside Roope’s, and he was the county’s leading wicket taker, with 234 at 23.08 (putting him eighth on the list of wicket-takers).

Pat Pocock made the most Surrey appearances, his 209 matches spanning every season of the John Player era, and in 1978 he returned figures of 8-2-7-1 against Northamptonshire at Tring, although the match was lost as Wayne Larkins took a liking to the Surrey seamers with an unbeaten century.

‘Percy’ also features in probably my favourite nugget uncovered while I was researching the book. A JPL century in 1985 by Damian D’Oliveira of Worcestershire mirrored one scored by his father Basil twelve years earlier, with Surrey the opponents on both occasions.

Pocock would have been all too aware of the first father and son combination to achieve JPL centuries, as he was hit for six in both of those D’Oliveira innings.

*Stars on Sunday: The History of Cricket’s John Player League is out now via Pitch Publishing, and is available from all good booksellers or via www.starsonsundaybook.com