Michael Glenn

Profiled by Peter Redding (Huddersfield University - 2006)

Michael Glenn only played for one season at Golcar but made a significant impact at the club, picking up the league bowling prize in the 1976 season. Glenn was a fast-medium bowler who had good control of line and length as was evident during his career-best haul of 7-17 against Armitage Bridge, which was claimed off 11 overs.

As a batsman Michael liked to get on with it and was particularly strong on the front foot, but a lack of time at the crease hampered his development with the willow.

At the age of 18 Glenn was playing county cricket in a struggling Derbyshire side in 1975, and made his debut against Worcestershire at the County Ground playing alongside England fast bowler Mike Hendrick and the Indian spinner-turned-umpire Srinivasaraghavan Venkataraghavan.

In the 1976 season he recorded his best figures in first-class cricket against Worcestershire at New Road, taking 3-36 in what would turn out to be his final first-class match.

Though Glenn’s first-class career only spanned two seasons he was able to play against many greats of the game including Ritchie Richardson, Geoff Boycott, Basil D’Oliveira, Imran Khan and Clive Lloyd, and regards Eddie Barlow - the great South Afican all-rounder whose career was cut short by the Apartheid ban and who passed away last year - as the best player he has ever played with.

As well as representing Golcar, Glenn also played for several other league clubs: Bradford Park Avenue in the Yorkshire League, Waleswood in the Bassetlaw League, Norton in the North Staffordshire and South Cheshire League, as well as spending several seasons in the Derbyshire County League.

When Michael Glenn looks back at his career he is philosophical: ‘I would have liked a first-class career but things did not quite happen. I think had it have been at another time or another county things may have been different,’ he says.

Reflecting on his Golcar career, he was pleased with the experience, as he explains: ‘I enjoyed playing there but there were high expectations.’

In recent years Glenn has taken on the role of cricket development officer at his old county, Derbyshire, where he has been able to see young players develop into first-team players and youngsters display potential for the future, and says the players that he enjoys watching most are ‘the young players who I have coached and worked with’, as he looks forward to seeing them progress to the next level.

Glenn is also optimistic about the state of English cricket as a whole saying, ‘it’s in a pretty healthy state from top to bottom, plus there is no reason why it should not get better still.’

Michael Glenn has a couple of nine-wicket hauls to his name, but fans of Golcar CC will always remember his performances during the 1976 season, when he picked up numerous five-wicket hauls and was recognised as the best bowler in the Huddersfield League that season, perhaps being inspired by one of his heroes, Michael Holding, who at the same time in the summer of 1976 was tearing through Tony Greig’s England team.

Golcar only received a fleeting glimpse of Glenn’s bowling but were left in no doubt about how good a performer he was.