Today, Richard Johnson is better known as Middlesex Cricket’s First Team Coach, however thirty years ago to this day, he was busy writing himself into the Club’s record books with what was a quite superb bowling performance in Derby.
Saturday 2nd July 1994, was a day like any other in a long and gruelling County Championship season, when Richard Johnson and the rest of the Middlesex side, led by Mike Gatting, returned to Derbyshire’s County Ground for day three of their latest first-class encounter.
Day one had begun with Derbyshire winning the toss and electing to bat first, and finished with them having made steady progress, building their innings to 313 for 7 when stumps were drawn.
Day two saw Middlesex’s attack wrap up the hosts’ first innings inside an hour on day two, for 344, with Johnson finishing with unremarkable figures of 1 for 65 from 20 overs.
Middlesex in reply batted through the remainder of day two, reaching 394 for 3 at the close, with centuries from both Mike Gatting and Mark Ramprakash helping them to a first innings lead of 50 runs with seven wickets still in hand.
Middlesex continued to build their lead on day three, with John Carr also reaching three figures before the Middlesex innings came to an end, with 545 runs on the board and a first innings lead of 201. Johnson batted at number 8 and made just 3 with the bat, before being trapped in front by Colin Wells.
Right arm quick Johnson was charged with taking the new ball, with Mark Feltham, and neither could have predicted quite how the day would end.
In his very first over of the second innings, Johnson claimed the scalp of the dangerous Kim Barnett, who had hit a century in Derbyshire’s first innings, however it was a long way from being the best over that the seamer had ever sent down as Johnson himself recalls:
“My first ball was a rank long hop which was smashed by Kim Barnett through point for four. After a few more mediocre deliveries I finished the over with another short and wide one, which Barnett smashed right at Embers (John Emburey) at point who took the catch. I grabbed my jumper back off umpire Peter Willey at the end of the over, told him that I wasn’t really feeling it today, and he answered that with luck like that I could well end up with a five’fer!”
Derbyshire 4 for 1 | Johnson: 0.5 - 0 - 4 - 1
In the fifth over of the innings, Johnson’s third over, he struck again, as Matthew Vandrau drove at a good length ball just outside off which nipped back through the gate and clattered into the off stump.
Derbyshire 9 for 2 | Johnson: 2.2 - 0 - 5 - 2
Two overs later and Johnson had a third, with Emburey again taking the catch at chest height, as Tim O’Gorman cut a short delivery to him at point to depart for 18.
Derbyshire 30 for 3 | Johnson: 5 - 1 - 10 - 3
Another wicket in his sixth over saw Johnson claim his fourth, as Dominic Cork couldn’t resist having a go at two consecutive bouncers, mis-timing the first hook for four through mid-wicket, before again mis-timing Johnson’s follow up bouncer, only to top edge it down to deep fine leg, where Feltham took a well judged catch.
Derbyshire 34 for 4 | Johnson: 5.3 - 1 - 14 - 4
Chris Adams became Johnson’s next victim and earned him the first five-wicket haul of his career. Adams pushed at a short of a length ball that moved away from him, finding the edge to Carr at second slip.
Derbyshire 35 for 5 | Johnson: 6.4 - 1 - 15 - 5
Adrian Rollins was next, as the Derbyshire wicketkeeper tried to turn a delivery into the on side, only for the ball to straighten on him and find the leading edge, with Johnson taking a looping return catch half way down the wicket.
Derbyshire 36 for 6 | Johnson: 8 - 2 - 15 - 6
Alan Warner came to the crease with clear intent to play his shots, however to a short ball outside the off stump, he leaned back to carve a cut shot away, only to feather the ball through to the gloves of Keith Brown behind to give Johnson his seventh wicket.
Derbyshire 43 for 7 | Johnson: 8.5 - 2 - 17 - 7
Johnson, with all seven Derbyshire wickets to his name, kept going, only taking a blow three overs before tea. When the interval came, Johnson had bowled 12 overs and had figures of 7 for 22.
Taking a well-earned break in the interval, the notion of claiming all ten opposition wickets hadn’t even crossed Johnson’s mind, as he was more focussed on resting and icing a sore knee, which he was suffering from at the time and was due an operation on in a couple of weeks’ time. A conversation with teammate Kevin Shine brought things into focus:
“I was sat there with an ice pack on my knee and Shiny (Kevin Shine) came up to me and said you do know that you’ve got to keep bowling after tea don’t you? I explained to him that I was struggling a bit and he just told me to keep going and that I would never get a better chance to get all ten wickets. So I carried on after tea and luckily got a wicket pretty early, which gave me the lift I needed to just keep going.”
That eighth wicket came with the wicket of Simon Base, in Johnson’s 15th over, as a yorker length delivery hit the batter deep in his crease on the boot, bang in front of middle and leg.
Derbyshire 90 for 8 | Johnson: 14.4 - 4 - 40 - 8
Two overs later and eight became nine, as Colin Wells went back to a full and straight ball which pitched middle and off and hit middle, with Wells departing for Derbyshire’s top score in the innings of 38.
Derbyshire 104 for 9 | Johnson: 16.5 - 4 - 44 - 9
The fall of Derbyshire’s ninth wicket brought Devon Malcolm to the crease, a player not known for his prowess with willow in hand, and Johnson recalls the feeling of being on nine wickets and seeing Malcolm heading out to bat:
“Devon Malcolm walked out to the middle and I thought, hello, I’ve got a real opportunity here. I bowled him one of the best Yorkers I’d bowled all game and somehow, I don’t know how, he managed to dig it out and take a single. That was the last ball I got to bowl at him.”
At the other end was Matthew Taylor, and with Malcolm off strike and Taylor facing Johnson charged in with his sights set on an historic ten’fer!
It came with Johnson’s best delivery of the day, a straight ball that pitched on a good length, lifted and moved away, taking the shoulder of the bat on the way through, with Ramprakash taking the catch in his midriff at third slip to cue chaotic scenes of celebration.
Derbyshire 105 all out | Johnson: 18.5 - 6 - 45 - 10
Middlesex had secured the win by an innings and 96 runs and Johnson had secured his place in the Club’s record books, becoming the youngest ever Middlesex player to claim all ten wickets in an innings, and only the fifth player to achieve the feat in the Club’s existence. He followed in the footsteps of some real greats of the Club – Vyell Walker in 1865, George Burton in 1888, Albert Trott in 1900 and Gubby Allen in 1929.
On taking the tenth and final wicket, looking back on what came next, Johnson recalls:
“We then just jumped on top of each other, and to be honest I don’t remember much after that, it was all a bit of a blur.
“Everyone went crazy as none of the players had seen a ten-fer before.
“I’d like to describe the atmosphere in the dressing room afterwards, but unfortunately, I missed it all as I had to give some impromptu interviews to the media. I know some champagne arrived, but I was the one who missed all the excitement."
Reflecting on the achievement, Johnson has, over time, come to appreciate just how special that day was:
“I was young, and at the time you don’t really appreciate what you’ve done. You just do your thing and want to keep playing. It’s really only as time has passed that you begin to realise quite how special an achievement it was and how proud it makes you to have done it.”
No other bowler has repeated the feat since Johnson did so thirty years ago, however two quicks under his guidance at the time have come mighty close to joining him in that select group...
Steven Finn’s 9 for 37 against Worcestershire in 2010 and James Harris’s 9 for 34 against Durham in 2015 have threatened to match his efforts, although for the time being, Johnson maintains the bragging rights over those has tutored in his time as a bowling Coach.
The scenes as Ramprakash bags the catch to secure Johnson's tenth wicket...
A shot of the Derbyshire scoreboard at the end of a remarkable day...
