John Emburey learnt at the feet of a master off-spinner in Fred Titmus when he first joined the Middlesex staff. But by 1983, he was his own man, and was named a Wisden Cricketer of the Year in 1984.
John Emburey did get back into the England team in 1985, and played a full part in England’s Ashes win that summer. In 64 Tests, he took 147 wickets at 38.40. In all first-class matches, he took 1,608 wickets at 26.09.
A bowler’s first experience of taking 100 wickets in a season would normally be cause for unqualified delight. But great as was John Ernest Emburey’s satisfaction in fulfilling that ambition, he would happily have traded it for the 17 extra points that would have enabled Middlesex to retain the County Championship. And with the possible exception of John Lever, whose wickets for Essex were taken at the breakneck speed of one every five and a half overs, no player in either of the top two teams contributed more than Middlesex’s 6ft 2in off-spinning all-rounder.
One of their four ever-presents by dint of his England suspension, he not only took 96 wickets in the Championship and scored 772 runs, but as acting-captain in eight games, while Mike Gatting was away, he led the side to five of their eleven victories, four of them successively during the World Cup. Though he had a number of outstanding games, notably against Leicestershire at Lord’s (match-figures of eight for 22 in 21.2 overs and scores of 47 and 73 not out), the keynote of his season was consistency.
Only once did he take more than five wickets in an innings – six for 13 against Kent at Dartford. But on 18 other occasions he took three or more, and but for a combination of wet weather and unhelpful pitches in the last four matches, when in common with his fellow-spinner, Phil Edmonds, he had to be content with seven costly wickets, he could be counted on for an analysis that would have won Middlesex an extra vital victory.
First-choice off-spinner at last, he won his county cap at once, taking 81 wickets in his first full season, and by 1978 was in the England team at Lord’s, dismissing Bruce Edgar of New Zealand with his fourth ball in a Test. Had it not been for the lure of financial security offered by the South African venture, prompted too, by concern about the durability of an often painful back, he would almost certainly by now have added many to his 22 Test caps. As it is, for John Emburey 1985 can’t come too soon.
