Brief profile of Steve Goldsmith by Matthew Reed

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Player:

SC Goldsmith

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DateLine: 22nd November 2005

 

Steve Goldsmith was a batting all-rounder who’s attacking instincts with the willow, and medium paced bowling inevitably found most use in limited-overs cricket. He was a regular member of the Derbyshire side which won the Sunday League in 1990, batting at no.6 and being a serviceable sixth bowler. He also had the honour of hitting the wining run in the Trophy clinching win against Essex. The longer form of the game found his brand of quickfire 20’s and 30’s less useful, although he played the majority of his First-class cricket in an era of three day Championship matches, where no.6 batsman were often required to sacrifice the forward defensive for the slog. However, Goldsmith was still able to score 1,071 First-class runs in his debut season for the Peakites (he had earlier played a handful of matches for Kent from 1986-7), although he was overshadowed in this by Peter Bowler’s own wonderful debut season. He also took a wonderful catch to dismiss Robin Smith against Hampshire in the 1988 Benson & Hedges Cup Final, in a rare bright spot as the East Midlanders lost heavily.

 

Given his aggressive nature with the bat, it is ironic that Goldsmith’s two First-class hundreds were both watchfully made. His debut century was against the decidedly average Sri Lankan tourists of 1991. In this match Goldsmith had ended the first day undefeated on 98, and later admitted that he had toyed with the idea of slogging a ball in the final over of the day just to save himself the agony of an evening stuck so close to the three figures. When Goldsmith sustained a nasty gash while fielding at The Oval in July 1992, few could have guessed it would end his county career. In taking an age to heal it ruled him out of the second half of the season, which was very bad news in the final year of a contract. This was especially sad, as Goldsmith had showed himself capable of adapting his batting to the new era of four day games, although his bowling had struggled to develop into either an effective partnership breaker or an economical asphyxiater of opposing batsmen. After leaving Derbyshire Goldsmith gave sterling service to Norfolk for a decade, playing many matches in their cup campaigns.

 

 

(November 2005)

 

(Article: Copyright © 2005 Matthew Reed)