The Club is saddened to hear of the death of Rob Grant after a long fight against cancer. Rob was a stalwart of the Club in two spells, the son of former Chairman Tom, and father of Zac and Connor. Here's a superb obituary from the Birmingham League:
There’s many good judges that believe the 20 year period of Birmingham League cricket from 1980-2000 to be a golden era of club competition - an age where the League was at its heights of quality and a time where it provided a conveyor belt of talent into the wider cricket community.
The greats of this era are legion - amongst them are Jonathan Wright, Nick Archer, Steve Dean and Ian Stokes with the bat; Gordon Smith, Keith Arnold, Tim Heap and Paul Newman with the ball - all immense cricketers but even bigger characters, and all superstars of the club game during that so-called golden era. Alongside these, one other name will often feature - that of Robert John Grant, known to all as ‘Granty’, a fine quick bowler in the colours of his home town Leamington, Warwickshire, Coventry and North Warwick, Old Hill and with spells at both Staffordshire and Herefordshire.
Tall, barrel chested and deceptively sharp, Grant’s ability to shape the ball away from the bat led the great Steve Waugh to describe him as the best seamer he’d faced in England outside of test cricket, an accolade that, rather naturally, Rob was particularly fond of reminding his teammates, opponents, and anyone else who was prepared to listen, about.
Capable of long spells and often, under the old league rules, bowling 25 overs through an innings, his stamina defined his on-field efforts and with many teams facing him, it was regularly a case of “see Granty off and score the runs at the other end.”
Early Love
Rob’s love of cricket and sharp appreciation for its history and heritage started at home and well before his involvement with his beloved Leamington CC. Former team mate Clive Antrobus reminisced: “Rob and his brothers used to play ‘test matches’ in their back garden, with a scoreboard hanging out of the upstairs bedroom window, for hour upon hour. Every time the score changed, one of them would run up the stairs to change the score and so on.
“The games were deadly serious- day long ‘test matches’ based upon whoever who was touring at the time. Granty, at an early age, was somewhat ambidextrous, and once he’d finished bowling right arm seam, he’d miraculously become ‘Bishen Bedi’ and spend the rest of the innings bowling respectable slow left arm! When he came to Leamington around the age of 13, it was crystal clear to us that he was head and shoulders above his peers and that he’d got the lot as a seamer.
“He thrived on accuracy- I well recall opening the bowling with him in the 80s in one match and in the first hour, we bowled 21 overs, with less than 50 on the board. He truly had every tool in the seamer’s armoury, including, crucially, a sharp wit and an ability to make his voice heard in the batsman’s direction!”
Beyond the average
Grant’s club career started with Leamington, but in 1984, aged 19, he turned out for Warwickshire 2nd XI, grabbing 22 wickets at a respectable average of 25.86. After spending 1985 at Leamington, his focus returned to the Birmingham League for the next eight years, representing Coventry and North Warwickshire in 1986-89 and Old Hill from 1990-1993. In total, he took 301 Birmingham League wickets at a remarkable average of 18.57, taking the most wickets in 1989 season (51) and three times in the top two wicket takers in the league.
His four seasons at Coventry saw an astonishing 190 wickets at 16.26 and, with former Shropshire seamer (and Coventry City footballer) Steve Ogrizovic, forming one of the most feared opening attacks in Birmingham League history. His career also featured spells at Herefordshire and Staffordshire, appearing in a number of A List matches, and memorably sharing the new ball with England seamer Paul Taylor. He returned to Leamington in 1994.
Bowling the heavy ball
Birmingham League stalwart and former CEO of Nederland Cricket, Richard Cox, observed: “For many of us at the time we couldn’t understand how this most skilful of bowlers wasn’t playing county cricket. Week in week out he knocked over the very best whether they be current or former county pros or just hardened Birmingham League Cricketers. With a slight of hand and a change of wrist position at the crease he was able to make the ball talk off almost any surface with unerring accuracy.
“It was one thing to have such control it’s another to be able to do it for 20+ overs each week with an indomitable attitude to wearing the opposition down.
“It’s true to say he was not short of a word in the middle - often cutting, always full of dark and self-deprecating humour with a dry wit that was often too smart for many. For he knew, most of the time, he had many of us in his back pocket - perhaps not immediately but always eventually.”
General Manager of BDPCL and former Walsall and Staffordshire skipper Nick Archer added: “Rob hit the bat harder than anyone else I played against - one broken thumb and countless bruised fingers! It was a disappointment to us that he only played one game for Staffs then moved to Herefordshire by choice, but he was competing against Benjamin, Blank, Cork, Headley and Taylor, four of whom went on to play for England.”
Hatred of cricket
Music was a love of the big man, with progressive rock and a love of Rush, Jimi Hendrix and Pink Floyd very much at the top of his playlist, with huge knowledge of the former, dating back to seeing them in his younger days in 1988. During his illness, he read avidly the autobiography of Rush’s drummer, the late, great Neil Peart, a man who also succumbed to cancer, and he confided in how inspirational he found Peart’s words. Alongside music, dogs and Manchester United also had special places in the Grant heart, with a long dog walk his absolute love during his later years as he struggled manfully against the affects of chemotherapy and cocktails of painkillers.
Rob also professed to many around him that he actually hated cricket, and in particular, bowling, seeing it rather more as a means to a social end, a way of meeting great people and of course, a manner of working up a sweat in order to partake in an ale or two.
For anyone who had the fortune (or misfortune) to field at mid-off or mid-on whilst he bowled, the constant ticking and cursing in the Grant run up, followed by more mutters and grumbles as hapless batters flailed unsuccessfully at his majestic leg cutters, or worse, were painfully pinned on the inside thigh by a fearsome ‘nipbacker’, were entertainment enough to keep the day in the field interesting. He claimed he was a recalcitrant cricketer, a reluctant performer, but once with ball in hand, his skill level was without parallel, even if at times, he ran into bowl with all the eagerness of man with his braces caught up on the sightscreen and with all the good humour of King Lear storming on the heath.
Going to Waugh
Returning to Steve Waugh and in 1988, Smethwick visited Coventry and NW with the mighty Aussie in their middle order. Batting first, C & NW reached 231 off 50 overs, with Graham Charlesworth smashing a wonderful 74 not out. Chasing, Smethwick faced Grant all afternoon as he bowled through the innings, recording figures of 25-5-91-3. However, with Smethwick needing 16 to win off 12 deliveries and Waugh at the non-striker's end, a wicket fell. As the incoming batsman emerged and asked if the plan was to take a single to get the Aussie back on strike, Waugh spoke and said this (with apologies to the great C & NW spinner, Geoff Edmunds): “Look mate, there’s two games of cricket going on out here - Grant’s end and the other and if I get out to him we’re stuffed. Block this over out and I’ll take 16 off any four balls the left arm spinner bowls in the last over!” And so, a tale of legend was born, with Waugh describing Grant to Cov players, Dave Robinson and Brian Mills, as ‘the best seamer I’ve faced in England outside of test cricket’.
Waugh reminisced: “Playing league cricket in the UK was not only a fantastic life experience but helped me develop and evolve as a cricketer. “In many ways scoring a century on challenging pitches against the local bowling attack who invariably had one or two seasoned veterans full of trickery and cunning was as tough as a test century. “One such bowler was Coventry & NW bowler Rob Grant who had stamina, skill and street smarts. I recall duelling with him as he bowled 25 straight from one end where he challenged my technique and mental toughness with his consistency and variation. It was a pleasure to play against him and I’m saddened to learn of his passing. May he rest in peace.”
A Captain’s dream
Mills, Rob’s skipper at C & NW during the eighties commented: “On behalf of all at Coventry and North Warwickshire CC, we send our condolences and our best wishes to the Grant family. Rob was a special friend and a special cricketer - a man that formed that incredible opening attack with Oggy, a partnership feared by all, with both players sharing some very forthright and unprintable views on virtually every batsman in the league. “Match Day at C&NW was so simple for the skipper! As we walked out, Rob would turn to me and say “Same as usual?” I’d nod and he’d reply “Let’s catch up at drinks then!”
“I regret hugely not having the chance to see him in recent years, but as someone who believes in the afterlife, I cannot help but reflect that Rob will be waiting for us all and when we turn up, he’ll great us with a booming leg cutter from just short of a length - in other words, business as usual! Of course, I’ll be the one running down the pitch to try and smash him - but we all know there’s a fat chance of me connecting!” quipped Mills.
Stumps
During his last season with Leamington in 2011, as he embraced play-cricket.com, his bio read “Extremely old, miserable and unbelievably boring seam bowler and legendary fine leg fielder”, which to those of us who knew him well, showed admirable self-awareness and no less hallmark self-deprecating humour, a key quality of Rob’s personality. In short, Granty was never more miserable than when playing cricket, and that’s exactly how both he and we would have wanted it.
RIP Rob Grant, a Birmingham League legend and a great friend of all.
With thanks to Scott Oliver for the help on statistics.
Footnote: At his own wish, Rob’s funeral will be a small family affair with a plan to host a celebration of his life in the New Year - BDPCL will provide details of this in due course.