Brief profile of Ewan McCray by Matthew Reed

---

Player:

E McCray

---

DateLine: 22nd November 2005

 

Ewan McCray was arguably the unluckiest victim of Derbyshire’s serious financial problems of the early 1990’s. Given a 1 year contract for the 1991 season after a very useful all-round season in the second XI, he proved himself to be a capable batsman and a tidy off-spinner with a fantastic limited-overs strike rate of 24. His finest performance was arguably against Glamorgan in the Sunday league, when he took 3 wickets in an over (4-49 in the match) to guarantee that Derbyshire would mark their debut at Checkley with a victory. It was even more noteworthy that McCray achieved such figures on such a small, league sized ground (where many a batsman would have fancied his chances of carting McCray into the stand). He may have been hindered by the fact that he failed to take a wicket in 42 First-class overs, although an economy of just 2.07, and two knocks of 37 and 31 with the bat were real plus marks. However, in an era of real belt tightening, and with Derbyshire always having been a county of seamers rather than spinners, it was decided that Richard Sladdin offered more slow bowling potential, and so McCray’s season in the sun of the county game was not extended.

 

(November 2005)

(Article: Copyright © 2005 Matthew Reed)