David Lloyd - Bumble - underated as a player

[sledger]

Never really thought about this much myself, but had a look at some of his performances and statistics for both Tests and ODIs for England, and he looked like a pretty useful player, certainly has very respectable figures, but yet didn't play very many matches at all.

Anyone care to shed any light on this?

[Richard]

Lloyd was one of a very large number of good opening batsmen around the turn of the 1960s to 1970s. His not playing much is the same reason Mike Brearley was 34 by the time he made his Test debut.

Dennis Amiss, Geoff Boycott, John Edrich, Brian Luckhurst, Bob Barber, Barry Wood, Bob Woolmer, Colin Milburn, John Jameson, Lloyd, Brearley, Eric Russell, and probably a good few others I've forgotten. There were lots of them, and competition was fierce.

Had Boycott not dropped-out for 3 years Lloyd might possibly never have played at all.

[stumpski]

He made a playing comeback for Accrington CC this year (playing alongside son Graham) and didn't do too badly - it was featured on Sky's Cricket AM. Famously roughed up by Lillee and Thomson in '74-75, including having his box turned inside out by Thommo apparently.

[Richard]

Thought it was having one trapped outside the box.

[fredfertang]

Bumble didn’t get the rub of the green – he scored a double hundred against India in 74 in his debut season which cemented his reputation as a fine player of spin (unusual perhaps for an opener)

He then went to Aus in 74/75 and found Lillee and Thompson too hot to handle – everyone did – and Bumble’s record was better than Cowdrey (the veteran) and Amiss (whose career wasn’t over) and had it not been for the fill your boots England 6th Test ( Thommo was out and Lillee bowled just 6 overs) when Bumble was dropped and Fletcher (another whose career continued) and Denness made big hundreds then his record would have been better than theirs too in which case John Edrich apart, he would have been the best of a bad bunch as far as the specialist batsmen were concerned.

But sadly he came back with an, in my view anyway, unfair reputation as an opening bat classy against spin but vulnerable to pace - of course he was never going to get in again on that basis and indeed he never did.

He’s a grand lad Bumble – his style of commentating takes a bit of getting used to but he’s one of the best.

[Lillian Thomson]

Lloyd was still seriously in contention for a Test place up to 1978. He and Barry Wood were both selected for the opening ODI series of the summer with a view to one of them opening in the Tests. Barry Wood was given the spot in the First Test but made no great impact and he was then replaced by Graham Gooch.

[BoyBrumby]

Bumble & Thommo relive the "knacker cracker".

Does a fair FST impression, does Bumble.

Anyway, he was a bit before my time, but looking at his cricinfo profile I think his unbeaten double ton versus India casts a possibly over-flattering light on his batting. His FC average was a tick over 33. Looks like his SLA wasn't the worst tho.

[stumpski]

"Can you take the pain away, but leave the swelling." That's a joke from an old Dickie Bird book - good show though. Who was that between Bumble and Greig?

On his last appearance for England Lloyd provided Gordon Greenidge, of all people, with a wicket - he proabably felt that just about summed up his England career.

[steds]

Originally Posted by stumpski

Who was that between Bumble and Greig?

Think it'll be Lawry won't it? Looks like Francis Urquhart, though.

[Mr Mxyzptlk]

On a somewhat related note, what's Graham Lloyd up to these days?