Cricket

I started playing cricket when I was about 10 years old, but I was never really any good (time to be realistic, eh !!).  I moved around the clubs, trying to see if I could find my level and I did eventually.

It all started at Romsey CC (a waste of time that), then to Deanery CC who played 'up the local Rec' so it was convenient.  I played a couple of seasons with them before going to Calmore Sports Club with my best mate, Mark Boston, who I was also at school with.

My first spell with the club was dreadful.  Once again, I got very little cricket and the people I was associating with were far from friendly.

So off I went again - this time to Ashurst CC, a little New Forest village club with a gravel track/road running through the outfield (play had to stop every time a car wanted to pass!!).  I had a good two year stint with them, playing quite a bit for the second XI and occasionally for the firsts when they were short.  I was quite sad to leave there but I decided to give Calmore Sports another try.

With some of the main protagonists of my misery now gone, I had an entertaining nine years with them, especially given they were one of the best clubs in the county and very respected - finishing runners-up in the Southern Premier League when they should have won it (lost to lowly Waterlooville on the last day of the season).

However, despite my work for the club - I had been fixture secretary, committee member, quiz master, barman, captain of the fourth XI and also the Sunday Second XI amongst many other positions - it was my short period as secretary that hastened my exit, courtesy of a campaign by hierarchy members of the club.  After little debate, I decided to leave, and it came as no surprise with these kind of people in charge, that they are now sliding rapidly down the league structure and hardly field three teams any more.

After leaving Calmore Sports, I went to play for Hedge End for a couple of years but the 2003 season was my first up in Manchester and I joined Prestwich, a very forward thinking club.  I didn't play much in that first season and became scorer to the second XI in 2004, winning the Lancashire County League 2nd XI Scorer of the Year award in both 2004 and 2005.
Celebration time - my first success with Prestwich 2nd XI
Winning the Hulme Trophy in 2004 at Woodhouses

I had a highest score of 80, compiled in a match for Calmore's Sunday Second XI although my former work colleague and good mate Mike Edwards does tend to remind me quite regularly of the time when I was 76 in Hastings, playing a work knock-out game for Southampton Revenue Offices, when I was run out going for a third run (on a hot day and on 76, going for a third was never the best option for me of all people!!).  Run Out 78 was the final result and Mike never lets me forget it!  My bowling, best described as right-arm occasional off-breaks and very occasional leg-breaks, yielded me a best of 3-60 in 10 overs against Romsey IV some years ago.

Now, my association with Prestwich has become rather limited (although I still go up there and also do the winter general knowledge quizzes) and I have become more 'involved' with Ramsbottom Cricket Club, where Dad scores and Mum is on the ladies committee.  I still keep an active interest in Prestwich and was more than delighted when they won everything in 2007 (first team league and cup, second team league and cup).  'Rammy' are a Lancashire League club, an almost professional set-up, and it is a good place to be.

Of course, I also accepted the fantastic opportunity to became cricket statistician and scorer to Sky Sports in March 2006, which takes me around the country and took me to Australia for the Ashes 2006-2007 as well as Sri Lanka in the autumn of 2007.

It is with great sadness that I don't have a lot of time for Hampshire any more, which is very sad as my life revolved around them ever since I was old enough to know better.  I have many great memories of times at Northlands Road in Southampton, where I used to walk around the ground and speak to many friends, whilst selling scorecards as a young boy.  Sadly, their move to the Rose Bowl in West End coincided with a huge change in emphasis at Hampshire.  No longer was this a family club where you could speak to many friends.  Now it is just a financial concern, where the members mean nothing unless they are huge benefactors who are willing to pump thousands of pounds into it and the staff have no security.  The results may say that Hampshire are a thriving club, but they are just pretending and one day, and probably very soon, they will be found out for exactly what they are.

I do hope to get the whites back on again some day.  I may not be the fittest person around but I enjoy the feeling of leather on willow.  Although now aged 35, I think my time for playing is edging ever closer to an end.  My kit is still in the cupboard, just in case!