Mike Hendrick RIP

Eggman said:
Geoff Arnold, John Snow, Peter Lever
Click to expand...
They were the bowlers when I first started watch cricket on BBC regularly. An ashes series we drew 2-2. Amazing how you can remember details from your youth but not last year.

Illingworth and Underwood were the spinners, D’Olivera first change swing bowling
 


Hendo did get one last send-off
Readers may remember a long piece I wrote a month ago with the surviving members of the 1981 series. In it, I talked to Mike Hendrick, the former Derbyshire and England seamer, who revealed that he was dying from cancer at the time. His last words to me were: “I’m in the departure lounge, but the flight has not quite left yet.”

Logon or register to see this image

From left, Lever, Botham, Hendrick, Taylor, Miller, Randall, Emburey and Boycott all gathered to say their farewells to “Hendo”
DAVID GRIFFIN/DERBYSHIRE CCC
It left earlier this week, but thankfully the gathering of former team-mates that we talked about in the piece happened before he died. Geoff Miller, the former off-spinner, had organised it and among those present were Ian Botham, John Emburey, Bob Taylor, Derek Randall, Geoff Boycott and John Lever.

They met in a wine bar in Matlock and gave Hendrick a rousing send-off and a standing ovation as he was led out of the bar, leaning on Botham’s arm, at the end of the afternoon — a reminder again of the enduring friendships and camaraderie resulting from sport.
 

Back
Top