This article first appeared in the book Saltire & Flannels by Fraser Simm, which is available for online purchase in the Cricket Scotland Shop.

With low, slow wickets, it is perhaps inevitable that Scotland has produced several excellent slow bowlers. Several rose to make their mark in English County cricket. Of these players, Jimmy Allan undoubtably was the one to achieve most for his Country and in the professional game.

Allan earned 60 caps for Scotland between 1953 and 1972, achieving a creditable average of 22 with both bat and ball for Scotland and similar figures for Kent. Five centuries and 435 top-class wickets with his orthodox left-arm spin would make him a valuable addition for any side. His accuracy and reliabilty were legendary and he would provide the added bonus of being able to bat well up the order.

As a schoolboy at the Edinburgh Academy, the 17 year old Allan made his name with 85 wickets at only 6.04 each; this brought him selection for the Public Schools XI at Lord's. He also had the surprising distinction of having Magnus Magnusson as a bowling partner at Edinburgh Academy! He went on to Oxford University where, in 1953, he made an immediate impact. What could be more daunting than to have to face Engaland's premier batsman in your very first match? The 21 year old Allan was introduced into the Oxford side to face Yorkshire and was soon bowling at Len Hutton, then very much in his prime. Allan is reported as "keeping the ball right up to the bat and varying his flight so well". He had the remarkable analysis of 7overs, 7 maidens, 0 runs, 1 wicket - and he was mainly bowling at Hutton, who was in such form that in his two following county innings he scored 178 & 100.

The very next encounter was no less challenging - against the touring Australians. Allan dismissed Keith Miller and Ian Craig in his first over. They recovered, but Jimmy Allan had burst upon the first-class scene in the most dramtic fashion. He finished the season as easily Oxford's top bowler. The secret of his success was his amazing control of length and variation of flight, which bothered so many batsmen. And, apparantly, he had not yet found a pitch to his liking!

In the years that followed, Allan continued the form of 1953, and was signed up by Kent in 1954. At school he had been a useful batsman and this was emphasised when he was promoted from tailender to bat at No 3 night watchman against Hampshire. He survived in his primary task and went on the next day to score 118, hitting 80 in boundaries while surprising his colleagues. Transformed into an opening batsman, he repeated this with an attcking 153 off the Sussex attack two games later. Just as he had become a top-class bowler from the very first ball he bowled, he was establisahed overnight as a real all-rounder. In the annual Varsity match, his 86 and 4/123 featured strongly. Jimmy Allan's career, strange to say, was probably at its peak.

The following season, 1955, he made three centuries for Kent but in the rest of his career, which lasted to 1972, he never again reached that mark. His batting was still very capable, but it was really with his bowling that he still had many days in the sun left ahead of him. It was the nagging accuracy that time after time lured batsmen to their doom. Some of Allan's analyses for Scotland truly remarkable. He demoralised Ireland in 1955 with 6 wickets for 17 runs and starred in a victory over Warwickshie in 1959 with 5/49. An innings of 99* against the touring New Zealanders of 1965 brought him so close to joining the elite Scotland batsmen who had taken hundreds off a major touring side. The anguish he would have felt when a last wicket partnership of 24 with David Livingstone was ended must have been deep. As the New Zealanders went for the easy victory target of 68, Allan for once was expensive, going for 18 runs in 2.4 overs. Was he still thinking about the lost chance of victory, or simply tired out?

Allan never forgot the skills he had learnt at school.: 7/54 and 4/69 against the 1969 Pakistanis in the twilight of his career were a special performance on a difficult wicket, and perhaps two analyses taken at random from his career are typical: 36-10-76-4 and 23-14-26-3. Nagging, nagging, nagging and always so accurate. Perhaps he impressed Warwickshire with the first of these efforts as he had three years in the mid-sixties with the County. In his last season he finished as he had started - at 40, in the annual Irish match his 24 overs cost only 18 runs and brought 3 wickets; it was like riding a bicycle. Jimmy Allan had mastered a special skill and never lost it.