‘Somehow one sensed that something extraordinary was going to happen when Sobers sauntered to the wicket’ - Wisden.
Malcolm Nash achieved sporting immortality as the bowler hit for a world-record six sixes by the legendary batsman Garry Sobers at Swansea in 1968, but, as Malcolm himself notes, although this single over made his name well-known, it should not define his long and distinguished cricketing career.
He also asserts that his strategy against Sobers in Swansea was to tempt the batsman into making a mistake and get caught, which he succeeded in doing with the fifth ball, only for the fielder to then fall over the boundary rope.
A highly regarded bowler, Abergavenny-born Malcolm Nash played over 600 matches for Glamorgan between 1966 and 1983, took over 1,300 wickets, had an England trial and was unlucky not to receive international recognition.
As former Glamorgan captain, Peter Walker, comments on his ex-teammate: “People should remember that Malcolm was a wonderful opening bowler... in many of his peers’ minds the best new ball bowler in county cricket.”
In Not Only, But Also, his sporting memoir published 50 years after that historic day in Swansea, Malcolm not only looks back at that over at St. Helen’s, but also explores and celebrates his wider achievements with ball and bat, painting an intriguing and nostalgic picture of county cricket, and the life of a county cricketer, in the 1960s and 1970s.
Described by his friend John Arlott as ‘a highly skilful manipulator of medium-pace seam bowling’, Malcolm’s story is of a cricketing life full of excitement and incident. It is a career remembered not only for that single over bowled to the best cricketer in the world, but also by much, much more.
Speaking about his memoirs, Malcolm Nash commented: “It was certainly a memorable journey, from school cricket in Abergavenny to playing golf in the Caribbean with my boyhood hero Garry Sobers, via St. Helen’s on that Bank Holiday Monday in 1968 that neither of us will ever forget.”
• Not Only, But Also - My Life in Cricket is published by St. David’s Press on May 18, priced £19.99, and contains over 200 photographs.