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but then was hit on the head by a short ball from Marshall. He spent the rest of the match in hospital and never played Test cricket again.
    Gower came in and scored a very elegant 10. Only some lusty blows from Botham and sensible batting from Downton enabled England to reach 191. After centuries from Gomes and Richards,the West Indies were on the ropes at 455 for 8. Then, a ninth wicket partnership between Baptiste and Holding helped the Windies to a final total of 606. Holding, in the side for his bowling, hit four sixes and eight fours in his innings of 69.
    One curiosity from the debacle of England’s bowling was that Derek Pringle, a medium pacer, bowled eighteen no balls. Very strange. The other oddity was David Gower not calling on Geoff Miller, England’s fifth bowler, until the West Indies had scored 260. Maybe Gower had forgotten that he was a bowler? Or that he was on the field at all?
    With Andy Lloyd unable to bat in the second innings, Paul Downton opened in his place and hit a courageous 56 but England soon subsided for 235 and the West Indies had no need to bat again. While all this was going on in Birmingham, the police and miners were squaring up to each other at the Battle of Orgreave.
    Was it really a battle? I think if you asked the people that were there, they would probably say yes. The Messiah (aka Arthur Scargill) was present, leading his men. Attila the Hen (aka Margaret Thatcher) wasn’t actually at Orgreave but she was there in spirit. Her troops were lined up like Roman legions with the police bashing their riot shields with their truncheons as they advanced. Like in Gladiator (and Billy Elliot for that matter), they parted to let the mounted police through to disperse the mass pickets.
    There were many injuries on both sides. After the battle, ninety -five miners were charged with riot, unlawful assembly and similar offences. A number of the miners were eventually taken to court in 1987, but the trials collapsed and all charges were dropped.
    Taking into account the fact that they were both happening in England at around the same time, you could not really get a greater contrast between the Battle of Orgreave and the rarefied atmosphere of a Test match at Lords. True, both wereconfrontations with a lot at stake; it’s just that one had cucumber sandwiches at tea time and the other didn’t. The other difference was that David Gower and Clive Lloyd would share a beer at the end of the day when hostilities were over, which is maybe where Margaret Thatcher and Arthur Scargill went wrong.
    The miners’ strike seemed to be the last thing on people’s minds at Lords as a full house settled down to watch the Second Test. The match started encouragingly for England. A century stand between débutant Chris Broad (father of Stuart) and Graeme Fowler gave them a great start. Although their final total of 286 looked slightly below par, an inspired Ian Botham ensured a first innings lead of 41. He took 8 for 103 in 27.4 overs, his best Test figures against the West Indies. A solid unbeaten century by Lamb and a robust 81 from Botham in the second innings, saw England to a 328 lead at the end of the fourth day. Lamb had come off for bad light even though he was batting well. He had looked up in vain at an empty England balcony for some guidance from his captain. Gower later admitted in his autobiography that he had been watching the tennis at Wimbledon on television.
    I took a greater than usual interest in the proceedings as I had a ticket for the last day. Viv Richards had always been a hero of mine but I had never seen him bat in the flesh. Now at last I would, and at Lords too!
    Lamb was out straightaway the next morning and England added just 13 before David Gower declared. The West Indies were set 342 to win in five and a half hours. There was a great sense of anticipation in the crowd as Greenidge and Haynes went out to bat.
    The West Indies had to score more in the fourth innings than had been