It was some time in the 1980s. The details have gone hazy: it could have been any county cricket ground and any captain being asked by the press why they had lost so badly to Northamptonshire: “What went wrong?” The answer was equally terse: “We got Nedded.”
A “Nedding” meant being on the receiving end of a blistering innings from Wayne “Ned” Larkins, who has died in hospital, while awaiting a heart bypass, aged 71. When he was hot, he could be the most thrilling batsman in the country. But demons of insecurity lurked beneath his cheery countenance and his 13 Test matches were a feeble reward for an exceptional talent.
Mind you, he might have been bombed out of cricket before he got going. He was born in Roxton, Bedfordshire, son of Jack, a farm labourer and weekend cricketer, and his wife, Mavis. Roxton was close enough to be on Northamptonshire’s radar. And Dennis Brookes, the club’s revered captain turned assistant secretary, was captivated as soon as he saw him. “He had such natural grace and was such an athlete,” he said.
But the boy’s progress was painfully slow. First, he batted beautifully in the nets but flopped playing for the second XI. Then he piled on the runs in the seconds but kept failing when promoted to the firsts. “He was like a startled rabbit,” said Brookes.
Towards the end of August 1975, after nearly 50 innings in four years, his batting average was still in single figures, and that included a soft century against Cambridge University. Since Northamptonshire had had a disappointing season, it might have been scapegoat time.
But then Larkins came together with his captain Mushtaq Mohammad in a rearguard action against Essex, to score 127 in a match-saving stand of 273. Mushtaq also believed in the lad, and kept him calm throughout. The next year he really began to click and earned his cap, the traditional sign of a county’s approbation.
Finally, in 1978, he was asked to open alongside the steady Geoff Cook. No one seemed to have thought of this before. Larkins immediately made a century, building his innings before cutting loose. It seemed as though the routine of going in first freed him from the uncertainty of waiting.
The two of them became the most durable opening partnership in the county’s history, and the name Larkins soon began to be mentioned nationally. Indeed, he was sent to Australia on a scholarship in case of emergencies in the 1978-79 Ashes.
England did put him in the squad for the second ever World Cup in 1979 and he was unexpectedly picked for the final. Chasing the West Indies’ 286, the openers – Geoff Boycott and Mike Brearley – batted too slowly to give England any chance; England were whacked, Larkins, batting No 7, got nought. But the Caribbean fast bowlers who then terrorised county cricket never bothered him; perhaps Brearley should have let him open.
He had a sizzling season from then on, and was chosen for the tour of Australia, part of the peace treaty that followed the tycoon Kerry Packer’s coup d’etat of Aussie cricket, with an Indian Test to follow. Larkins made an indifferent debut in Melbourne and got a duck in India.
Three more Tests came against the West Indies the next summer, but the opening slots were reserved for Boycott and Graham Gooch, and he did little. Was that because he was not allowed to go in first, which would have avoided him fretting and smoking with his pads on? Or was it his down to his old habit of coping badly with the next step up?
Ignored for the following official tour, Ned – the name came from Ned Larkin, an early Archers character – was easy pickings for the organisers of the rebel expedition to cheer up the then pariahs of South Africa. Most of those tourists who went had no regrets given the pay scales of English cricket. But for Larkins it was a dire mistake. Gooch and Boycott also went, and duly got a three-year ban from official international cricket, as did Larkins. If he had resisted he would have had a free run as England’s opening bat. It was nine years before he was chosen again.
The sole sniff he had in his exile came in 1986, the only year in that decade when he was totally out of nick. England picked Larkins for the squad to face India at home in the third Test at Edgbaston, but in the lead up to the match he acquired a badly bruised thumb while batting for Northamptonshire that put him out of contention. I was there that day and something in his demeanour made me think he was not as distressed as he might have been at missing out on a place.
But throughout the 1980s his hot days could be scorching. Opposition players often sensed a “Nedding” on its way if he went out for a few throw-downs before the match, rather than sit inside for a fag and a coffee, as he usually did. In a game at Luton in the old 40-over Sunday league in 1983 he smashed an unbeaten 172 off Warwickshire, including a six that soared over deep long-off without any sign of gravitational pull. The score broke the league record; the ball broke a bar-room window 20 yards behind the rope.
His belated recall by England took his international career into a third decade, on tours to West Indies and Australia. He scored his only two half centuries in Tests to finish with an average of 20.
He might have done better in modern times: he was a natural Bazballer and may have benefited from modern thinking about welfare, consistent selection and avoidance of stress. But he kept playing cricket, including four productive seasons for Durham and then Minor Counties until he was almost 50. He met old friends for his former team-mate David Capel’s funeral in 2020, where one observer said he was in good spirits and looked like an ageing rocker.
His first marriage to Jane (nee Faulkner) ended in divorce. He is survived by his second wife, Debbie (nee Adams), by their two daughters and by Debbie’s two daughters from a previous relationship.
