Typically for a bowler, Bill Taylor spent more time talking about his one great performance with the bat than about his entire career with the ball when he spoke to the December meeting of the Nottingham Cricket Lovers Society (NCLS).
To be fair, it is a story worth telling – how a genuine number 11 ‘rabbit’ of the type that scarcely exists in modern cricket produced an innings that would look good in the flamboyant era of white-ball big hitting.
“I went out to bat at number ten”, he recalled, “with the message to hang around until Paul Johnson, who’d gone off injured, was fit enough to resume his innings.
“I told Phil Wilkinson at the other end, ‘take it steady, Jonno’s due back’ – then promptly edged my first ball for four!
“I can’t really say what happened after that, just that everything went right”. He was so keen to tell the story that he almost forgot the key stat…
Bill Taylor, with a career average of under eight in List-A cricket (which even then was better than his 6.44 First-Class average), hit 63 off 31 balls with seven fours and three sixes and a strike rate of 203.23. Almost fifty years ago, was this not so much Bazball as ‘Billzball’?
He was ninth out, bowled by Chris Waller, and Notts had recovered from 117-8 to 212-9 off their 60 overs in the first round Gillette Cup tie at home to Sussex.
Just to put that in context – Bill’s previous highest List-A score was 17no, his best in all senior cricket was 28no and that blistering 63 was his only half century.
He also took one wicket in the match – John Barclay caught by Clive Rice – as Notts restricted Sussex to 208 and thus squeezed home by just four runs.
Among the other memories from Bill Taylor’s playing career was his first victim in senior cricket when as a teenager he debuted for Leek in the local leagues and got the great Garry Sobers – later to be team-mate and skipper at Notts – for just 10.
Bill was at that time qualifying for Lancashire and played a few Minor Counties games for his home county but limited opportunities at Old Trafford led him to Trent Bridge.
The first time he entered the home dressing room, he was understandably nervous – even more so when greeted by one of his new county’s seasoned pros. But that ‘seasoned pro’ was Bob ‘Knocker’ White who offered the new boy a prime seat on the benches and became a life-long friend.
Indeed, Bob White was scheduled to share the NCLS platform with Bill but sadly he died a few weeks earlier and by one of those quirks of fate, his funeral service had been held that morning.
Bill paid fulsome tribute to his friend and other members of the Society – including Chairman David Beaumont and President Bill Russell – added their memories of a popular and much-missed character.
The friendship with Bob White made the transition from printer to cricketer a little easier for Bill Taylor. During his wait to qualify (and then see if he was selected) at Lancashire, he was apprenticed to a local printing business – practical parental advice about ‘getting a trade’ – and this was to lead him to the momentous decision to give up being a cricket professional.
He was with Notts from 1971 until 1977 when he got an offer from a major print firm in Nottingham that proved too good to turn down.
“I was still enjoying my cricket”, he told the NCLS, “but at thirty I was also aware of how chancey it was a career.
“I had to find jobs in the winter because in those days cricketers weren’t paid in the close season and in the end, the chance of regular, full-time, fully paid work couldn’t be refused”.
That didn’t, though end his close relationship with the game and with Nottinghamshire cricket. 
Bill Taylor served on the Notts committee from 2009 to 2018, becoming chairman of the Cricket committee.
He had a two-year term as Club President in seasons 2018 and 2019 – a role he described as a ‘great honour and a bit of surprise’ – and at the 2020 AGM was elected as a vice-president in recognition of his long service to the Club.
He is currently a Director of Wade Print & Paper Limited based in Newthorpe, Notts.
December 2023