April

For his April song Fantasy Bob has no difficulty choosing Simon and Garfunkel's April Come She Will. 

This wonderful song was composed by Paul Simon and is the shortest track, a mere 1.51 minutes, on the album Sounds of Silence which was released in January 1966. The album reached number 13 in the UK charts later in 1966 and established the reputation of Simon and Garfunkel. Great things were just around the corner.

Paul Simon built the song around an English nursery rhyme he heard from a girlfriend in England. The rhyme tells how the cuckoo comes in April stays during the summer months and disappears in August. 

Simon expanded the lyric to tell the story of a young love blossoming and fading with the seasons. It is a masterpiece, beautifully conceived and delivered. This song is also featured in the soundtrack to the film The Graduate, along with an number of other Paul Simon songs.

April 1966 also saw the arrival in the UK of the West Indies touring team led by Gary Sobers. Sobers lead the team in all senses of the word. He scored 722 in the five Tests: 161 at Old Trafford; 46 and 163 not out at Lord's, 3 and 94 at Trent Bridge, 174 at Headingley and 81 and 0 at The Oval. He averaged 103.14, and his aggregate beat his record of 709 in 1959-60. Only Gibbs took more wickets than Sobers in the Tests, 21 to 20, but in all first-class matches Sobers finished with most wickets, 60 at 20.58 runs each. He also gained the distinction of being the first bowler from the West Indies to take nine wickets in an innings in England. Taking 9-49 against Kent on a perfect pitch at Canterbury. Sobers had the good fortune to win the toss in all five Tests.

Sobers - 3 bowlers in 1

But there were other class performers in the side - Hall and Griffiths were still a force to be reckoned with although the latter was under continual scrutiny for a dodgy action and was called in county games. Conrad Hunte, Rohan Khanai, Basil Butcher and Seymour Nurse were attractive and prolific batsmen and Lance Gibbs was the best off spinner bar none at the time and still hasn't been bettered as a West Indian spinner.

West Indies came to Glasgow in August to play Scotland in a 2 day match - inevitably it was rain affected and ended in a draw. Scotland bowled them out for 193 with Khanai, familiar with Scottish conditions through his time with Aberdeenshire, top scorer with 68. Stewart-Melville's Eric Thomson took 6 for 55.

West Indies won the Test series 3-1 but managed to win only 5 of their 22 other games - there were 14 draws. There were allegations of disinterest in their part in the county games and suggestions of poor surfaces. A very wet summer also meant that many matches were interrupted.

A rainy summer - one of the hits of the year was the Beatles' Paperback Writer - the B-side was Rain.