Alf Pope

Alfred Vardy Pope (15 August 1909 – 11 May 1996) was an English cricketer who played first class cricket for Derbyshire between 1930 and 1939. He was in the club's championship winning team of 1936 and took 555 wickets overall.

Pope was born at Tibshelf, Derbyshire and began work as a coal miner at the age of 14. Between 1923 and 1926, he was playing for the Tibshelf colliery cricket club which played in the Bassetlaw League and the Nottinghamshire and Derbyshire Collieries League. In 1925 at the age of 16, he was one of the scorers in a Derbyshire match at the County Ground. He joined Samuel Cadman's nursery at Derbyshire during the General Strike of 1926.

Pope made his debut for Derbyshire the 1930 season in May against Middlesex taking 3 wickets in total and finishing not out in the only innings he played. He played one more match that year, and twice in the 1931 season taking a reasonable wicket toll in all matches. In the 1932 season he started playing the full season and achieved two five wicket innings with 6 for 54 against Nottinghamshire. In the 1933 season he achieved 7 for 84 against Sussex and in the 1934 season he took 6 for 21 against Nottinghamshire. He managed five 5 wicket innings in the 1935 season, two of them in one match against Hampshire giving him a 10 wicket match total. In Derbyshire's Championship winning season of 1936 Pope achieved four 5 five wicket innings with 6 for 129 and 11 wickets in the whole match against Northamptonshire. As his brother George was unavailable to bowl in the season, his captain Arthur Richardson, would warn him he might have to bowl until close of play. Pope would respond cheerfully with "I like bowling, skipper".