Derek Underwood
Encyclopedia
Derek Underwood MBE
(born Derek Leslie Underwood, 8 June 1945, Bromley
, Kent
, England
) is an English
former international cricket
er, and a former President of the MCC
.
Underwood was one of the foremost spin bowlers
in the world for over a decade, starting from the late 1960s. Not a classical spinner, Underwood bowled at around medium pace and was often unplayable on seaming English wickets, particularly sticky wicket
s, earning his nickname 'Deadly', and accounting for the saying that England would "carry Underwood like an umbrella, in case of rain". His inswinging arm ball
was particularly noted for dismissing batsmen leg before wicket
. Underwood is noted for his consistent accuracy and Keith Dunstan
wrote that he "is 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
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 batsmen would make a mistake.
Underwood finished his career just three wickets short of 300 in Test cricket, at an average of 25.83. He 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 also toured Australia in 1970–71, dismissing Terry Jenner
to win the seventh Test at Sydney
, and regain The Ashes
.
On 16 July 2009, Underwood was inducted into the ICC Cricket Hall of Fame
, along with others including Neil Harvey
, David Gower
and Allan Border
.
.
Underwood played county cricket for Kent
, making his first-class
debut against Yorkshire
aged 17 in 1963. He became the youngest player to take 100 County Championship
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.
, Dennis Amiss
, Bob Woolmer
and Tony Greig
), to feature in Kerry Packer
's World Series Cricket
in the late 1970s, and tour South Africa
in 1981–82.
.
In the Reliance ICC Test Player Bowling Rankings , he was:
He scored his first and only first-class century (111) at the age of 39, in his 591st first-class match. It was played at Hastings
, 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 slipped quietly into cricket retirement in 1987, a the age of 42, having snared 2,465 wickets at a little over 20 apiece.
In 1997, he became Patron
of the Primary Club
, and in 2008 it was announced that he would serve as President of MCC
for the following year.
In a Wisden article in 2004, he was selected by a respected panel as a member of England's greatest post-war
XI.
Derek Underwood was appointed an Honorary Fellow of Canterbury Christ Church University
at a ceremony held at Canterbury Cathedral
on 30 January 2009.
Order of the British Empire
The Most Excellent Order of the British Empire is an order of chivalry established on 4 June 1917 by George V of the United Kingdom. The Order comprises five classes in civil and military divisions...
(born Derek Leslie Underwood, 8 June 1945, Bromley
Bromley
Bromley is a large suburban town in south east London, England and the administrative headquarters of the London Borough of Bromley. It was historically a market town, and prior to 1963 was in the county of Kent and formed the administrative centre of the Municipal Borough of Bromley...
, Kent
Kent
Kent is a county in southeast England, and is one of the home counties. It borders East Sussex, Surrey and Greater London and has a defined boundary with Essex in the middle of the Thames Estuary. The ceremonial county boundaries of Kent include the shire county of Kent and the unitary borough of...
, England
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
) is an English
English people
The English are a nation and ethnic group native to England, who speak English. The English identity is of early mediaeval origin, when they were known in Old English as the Anglecynn. England is now a country of the United Kingdom, and the majority of English people in England are British Citizens...
former international cricket
Cricket
Cricket is a bat-and-ball game played between two teams of 11 players on an oval-shaped field, at the centre of which is a rectangular 22-yard long pitch. One team bats, trying to score as many runs as possible while the other team bowls and fields, trying to dismiss the batsmen and thus limit the...
er, and a former President of the MCC
Marylebone Cricket Club
Marylebone Cricket Club is a cricket club in London founded in 1787. Its influence and longevity now witness it as a private members' club dedicated to the development of cricket. It owns, and is based at, Lord's Cricket Ground in St John's Wood, London NW8. MCC was formerly the governing body of...
.
Underwood was one of the foremost spin bowlers
Spin bowling
Spin bowling is a technique used for bowling in the sport of cricket. Practitioners are known as spinners or spin bowlers.-Purpose:The main aim of spin bowling is to bowl the cricket ball with rapid rotation so that when it bounces on the pitch it will deviate, thus making it difficult for the...
in the world for over a decade, starting from the late 1960s. Not a classical spinner, Underwood bowled at around medium pace and was often unplayable on seaming English wickets, particularly sticky wicket
Sticky wicket
Sticky wicket is a metaphor used to describe a difficult circumstance; it originates from difficult circumstances in the sport of cricket.-Origins:...
s, earning his nickname 'Deadly', and accounting for the saying that England would "carry Underwood like an umbrella, in case of rain". His inswinging arm ball
Arm ball
An arm ball is a type of delivery in cricket. It is a variation delivery bowled by an off spin bowler or slow left-arm orthodox bowler. It is the finger spin equivalent of a wrist spinner's slider or zooter....
was particularly noted for dismissing batsmen leg before wicket
Leg before wicket
In the sport of cricket, leg before wicket is one of the ways in which a batsman can be dismissed. An umpire will rule a batsman out LBW under a series of circumstances which primarily include the ball striking the batsman's body when it would otherwise have continued on to hit the batsman's...
. Underwood is noted for his consistent accuracy and Keith Dunstan
Keith Dunstan
Keith Dunstan OAM is an Australian journalist and author born in Melbourne, Australia, the son of William Dunstan VC and Marjorie Dunstan. He attended Geelong Grammar School and was a Flight Lieutenant in 1943-46 with the Royal Australian Air Force, stationed at Labuan in the Pacific...
wrote that he "is inclined to wear a hole in the pitch by dropping the ball on the same spot...".
Underwood was a first-class
First-class cricket
First-class cricket is a class of cricket that consists of matches of three or more days' scheduled duration, that are between two sides of eleven players and are officially adjudged first-class by virtue of the standard of the competing teams...
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
George Lohmann
George Alfred Lohmann is regarded as one of the greatest bowlers of all time...
and Wilfred Rhodes
Wilfred Rhodes
Wilfred Rhodes was an English professional cricketer who played 58 Test matches for England between 1899 and 1930. In Tests, Rhodes took 127 wickets in and scored 2,325 runs, becoming the first Englishman to complete the double of 1,000 runs and 100 wickets in Test matches...
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 batsmen would make a mistake.
Underwood finished his career just three wickets short of 300 in Test cricket, at an average of 25.83. He took the last four Australian
Australian cricket team
The Australian cricket team is the national cricket team of Australia. It is the joint oldest team in Test cricket, having played in the first Test match in 1877...
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
The Ashes
The Ashes is a Test cricket series played between England and Australia. It is one of the most celebrated rivalries in international cricket and dates back to 1882. It is currently played biennially, alternately in the United Kingdom and Australia. Cricket being a summer sport, and the venues...
series that Australia were winning 1–0. He also toured Australia in 1970–71, dismissing Terry Jenner
Terry Jenner
Terrence James Jenner was an Australian cricketer who played nine Tests and one ODI from 1970 to 1975. He was primarily a leg-spin bowler and was known for his attacking, loopy style of bowling, but he was also a handy lower-order batsman...
to win the seventh Test at Sydney
Sydney Cricket Ground
The Sydney Cricket Ground is a sports stadium in Sydney in Australia. It is used for Australian football, Test cricket, One Day International cricket, some rugby league and rugby union matches and is the home ground for the New South Wales Blues cricket team and the Sydney Swans of the Australian...
, and regain The Ashes
The Ashes
The Ashes is a Test cricket series played between England and Australia. It is one of the most celebrated rivalries in international cricket and dates back to 1882. It is currently played biennially, alternately in the United Kingdom and Australia. Cricket being a summer sport, and the venues...
.
On 16 July 2009, Underwood was inducted into the ICC Cricket Hall of Fame
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". A hall of fame, it was launched by the International Cricket Council on 2 January 2009, in association with the Federation of International Cricketers'...
, along with others including Neil Harvey
Neil Harvey
Robert Neil Harvey MBE is a former Australian cricketer who represented the Australian cricket team between 1948 and 1963, playing in 79 Test matches. He was the vice-captain of the team from 1957 until his retirement...
, David Gower
David Gower
David Ivon Gower OBE is a former English cricketer who became a commentator for Sky Sports. Although he eventually rose to the captaincy of the England cricket team during the 1980s, he is best known for being one of the most stylish left-handed batsmen of the modern era. Gower played 117 Test...
and Allan Border
Allan Border
Allan Robert Border AO is a former Australian cricketer. A batsman, Border was for many years the captain of the Australian team. His playing nickname was "A.B.". He played 156 Test matches in his career, a record until it was passed by fellow Australian Steve Waugh...
.
Early life and county career
Underwood was educated at Beckenham and Penge Grammar School for BoysLangley Park School for Boys
Langley Park School for Boys is a boys' comprehensive secondary school in Beckenham in the London Borough of Bromley, with a mixed-gender sixth form...
.
Underwood played county cricket for Kent
Kent County Cricket Club
Kent County Cricket Club is one of the 18 first class county county cricket clubs which make up the English and Welsh national cricket structure, representing the county of Kent...
, making his first-class
First-class cricket
First-class cricket is a class of cricket that consists of matches of three or more days' scheduled duration, that are between two sides of eleven players and are officially adjudged first-class by virtue of the standard of the competing teams...
debut against Yorkshire
Yorkshire County Cricket Club
Yorkshire County Cricket Club represents the historic county of Yorkshire as one of the 18 major county clubs which make up the English and Welsh domestic cricket structure....
aged 17 in 1963. He became the youngest player to take 100 County Championship
County Championship
The County Championship is the domestic first-class cricket competition in England and Wales...
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.
World Series Cricket
Underwood was one of five England cricketers (the others being Alan KnottAlan Knott
Alan Philip Eric Knott is a former Kent County Cricket Club and English cricketer, as a wicket-keeper-batsman....
, Dennis Amiss
Dennis Amiss
Dennis Leslie Amiss MBE was an English cricketer and cricket administrator.Amiss suffered a serious back injury whilst playing soccer in his teenage years, which entailed him starting each day of his sporting life undergoing stretching routines to loosen up.He played cricket for both Warwickshire...
, Bob Woolmer
Bob Woolmer
Robert Andrew Woolmer was an international cricketer, professional cricket coach and also a professional commentator...
and Tony Greig
Tony Greig
Anthony "Tony" William Greig is a former English Test cricketer and currently a commentator.Born in Queenstown, South Africa, Greig qualified to play for England by virtue of his Scottish father. He was a tall batting all-rounder who bowled both medium pace and off spin. He became captain of the...
), to feature in Kerry Packer
Kerry Packer
Kerry Francis Bullmore Packer, AC was an Australian media tycoon. The son of Sir Frank Packer and Gretel Bullmore, the Packer family company owned controlling interest in both the Nine television network and leading Australian publishing company Australian Consolidated Press, which were later...
's World Series Cricket
World Series Cricket
World Series Cricket was a break away professional cricket competition staged between 1977 and 1979 and organised by Kerry Packer for his Australian television network, Nine Network. The matches ran in opposition to established international cricket...
in the late 1970s, and tour South Africa
South African rebel tours
The South African rebel tours were a series of seven cricket tours staged between 1982 and 1990. They were known as the rebel tours because South Africa was throughout this period banned from international cricket due to the apartheid regime...
in 1981–82.
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. Underwood, oddly, 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 GiffordNorman Gifford
Norman Gifford was an English cricketer, who played primarily as a left-arm spinner...
.
In the Reliance ICC Test Player Bowling Rankings , he was:
- Highest Bowling Rating - 907 on 5 March 1971 (v New Zealand, Auckland, 2nd Test)
- Highest Bowling Ranking - 1st on 21 August 1969 (v New Zealand, The Oval, 3rd Test)
He scored his first and only first-class century (111) at the age of 39, in his 591st first-class match. It was played at Hastings
Hastings
Hastings is a town and borough in the county of East Sussex on the south coast of England. The town is located east of the county town of Lewes and south east of London, and has an estimated population of 86,900....
, a favourite bowling haunt for Underwood who, having gone in to bat as nightwatchman
Nightwatchman
Nightwatchman can refer to one of the following:* Watchman * Nightwatchman , a lower-order batsman who comes in to bat higher up the order than usual near the end of the day's play* The Nightwatchman or Tom Morello, musician...
, 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 slipped quietly into cricket retirement in 1987, a the age of 42, having snared 2,465 wickets at a little over 20 apiece.
Recognition
He was awarded the MBE in 1981.In 1997, he became Patron
Patrón
Patrón is a luxury brand of tequila produced in Mexico and sold in hand-blown, individually numbered bottles.Made entirely from Blue Agave "piñas" , Patrón comes in five varieties: Silver, Añejo, Reposado, Gran Patrón Platinum and Gran Patrón Burdeos. Patrón also sells a tequila-coffee blend known...
of the Primary Club
Primary Club
The Primary Club, started in 1955, is a charity based in Essex, England, that raises money to provide sports and recreational facilities for the visually impaired....
, and in 2008 it was announced that he would serve as President of MCC
Marylebone Cricket Club
Marylebone Cricket Club is a cricket club in London founded in 1787. Its influence and longevity now witness it as a private members' club dedicated to the development of cricket. It owns, and is based at, Lord's Cricket Ground in St John's Wood, London NW8. MCC was formerly the governing body of...
for the following year.
In a Wisden article in 2004, he was selected by a respected panel as a member of England's greatest post-war
Post-war
A post-war period or postwar period is the interval immediately following the ending of a war and enduring as long as war does not resume. A post-war period can become an interwar period or interbellum when a war between the same parties resumes at a later date...
XI.
Derek Underwood was appointed an Honorary Fellow of Canterbury Christ Church University
Canterbury Christ Church University
Canterbury Christ Church University is a university in Canterbury, Kent, England. Founded as a Church of England college for teaching training it has grown to full university status and will celebrate its 50th anniversary in 2012. The focus of its work is in the education of people going into...
at a ceremony held at Canterbury Cathedral
Canterbury Cathedral
Canterbury Cathedral in Canterbury, Kent, is one of the oldest and most famous Christian structures in England and forms part of a World Heritage Site....
on 30 January 2009.