Scott Oliver meets a history-making spinner from the Lancashire Leagues who counts the great Rahul Dravid among his victims
Published in issue 37 of Wisden Cricket Monthly (November 2020)
Bowlers to have taken 100 wickets in a Lancashire League season since World War II include Wes Hall, Franklyn Stephenson, Roger Harper and Allan Donald. Only twice over this period has an amateur managed it. The first, 113 wickets in 2010, was by Ramsbottom left-arm spinner Jon Fielding. The second, 106 in 2011, was by Ramsbottom’s Jon Fielding. With the introduction of restricted overs for bowlers, it will almost certainly never be done again.
In all, Fielding has 861 Lancashire League wickets since making his debut as a 15-year-old in 1988. It would be quite a few more, too, had he not played as a pro in neighbouring leagues for a 17-year stretch prior to that glorious homecoming 10 years ago, when, as captain, he led Ramsbottom to the title, their first since his previous campaign in 1992.
A year before that, his first of legal drinking age, Fielding had outbowled one SK Warne, trumping the Aussie’s 5-35 with figures of 5-20 to spin ‘Rammy’ to victory. He took that confidence into the Cambridge Under-19s Festival, which led to some unofficial England under-19s matches and a full contract at Lancashire.
Those three years at Old Trafford – in which he made just one first-class appearance – saw him play for three different coaches. When the third of them, David Lloyd, signed Gary Keedy, the writing was on the wall. “I have no regrets at all,” he says. “I’m proud to have had the opportunity to play for my county. Thing is, I actually played against Lancashire more times than I played for them.”
Those Red Rose encounters came in two B&H Cup games for the Minor Counties XI, who had picked him on the back of strong performances for Cumberland. Two of his most cherished cricketing memories are the dismissals of Wasim Akram and Neil Fairbrother as Lancashire slipped to 41-5, recovering to 210, before snuffing out a promising chase that at one stage was 90-1.
Fielding also played for the Minor Counties against the touring Aussies in 1997 and the South Africans a year later, picking up the wicket of Daryll Cullinan. But his most prized scalp came in 2000 for Cumberland against Kent at Carlisle in the NatWest Trophy, when figures of 9-3-26-2 included the great Rahul Dravid. “I think that day was as well as I ever bowled,” he recalls. “He went back to an arm-ball and it bowled him through the gate. Very pleasing!”
Fair to say that if, as a spinner, you’re knocking over Dravid, you must be doing something right. It would certainly have helped his confidence stepping back into club cricket.
His 17-year spell as a professional club cricketer involved 10 seasons across three stints at Walshaw of the Bolton Association, one at Holmfirth alongside former Yorkshire and England seamer Arnie Sidebottom, and six years in the Ribblesdale League: two at Baxenden and four at Clitheroe, where he followed in the footsteps of his father, Brian, a tearaway quick who once dismissed Steve Waugh for a second-ball duck. Fielding Jr took 367 wickets in those four campaigns at Chatburn Road, including two 100-wicket seasons. There have been wickets everywhere, and some handy lower-order runs, too.
The 2020 season will be his swansong, he says, passing the torch to his sons, both regulars in the Ramsbottom first XI, just as it was once passed to him. “I played half a season with my dad, but me saying ‘Bit wider, Dad’ or ‘Bit squarer, Dad’ finished him off, I think. It has been great playing with Brad and JJ [an 18-year-old batsman who is on the Lancashire Academy], but it’s time to sit and watch them develop. I’m not as agile as I used to be.”
Maybe so, but his final outing, a defeat to Church in the President’s Cup final, brought figures of 8-3-16-1 and a valiant 18 not out from nine balls as Ramsbottom came up three runs short. Best not sell your kit just yet, Dad.
