From the Garden to Premier One: How?

As many of the readers may be aware, I played my cricket (very badly) at Lansdown Cricket Club. Having played at Combe Park on and off from the age of 11 through to 20 I have grown up with many of the players in the teams. During my time at the club, they have never reached the top echelon of recreational cricket. However, the 2018 season saw the club win the Premier 2 League and gain their return to the West of England Premier One League – the first time in 26 years. On a crisp and cold evening in November, at an early winter net session at neighbour’s Bath Cricket Club’s indoor school, I had the opportunity to interview the players dusting away the cobwebs and delved into the cricketing background of some of the Lansdown XI who will be playing West of England Premier One League Cricket in the 2019 season.

The first interview of the evening was with Ryan Thorpe. Having started his cricket at Claverham Cricket Club, his boyhood club since the age of 8, his cricketing ability he claimed came from his mother; a Yorkshire woman who knew her cricket as many from the county do. Following in his Father’s footsteps at Claverham, he took 3 catches in his first Under 11’s game in tracksuit bottoms and a white polo; the non-whites. Progressing through the Claverham youth set up from age 12 and having very good seasons with both bat and ball he was soon playing men’s cricket and on the radar of the Somerset County Youth programme. He attested to rubbing shoulders with top quality batsman when he was a youngster to his style of cricket he plays now. At the age of 14, he made his 1st X1 debut and found himself batting at the bottom of the order and if lucky even made number 9 or 10. For Ryan, the one stand out season came during his formative years playing for Claverham 1st X1. In 2016, he was batting number 11 in one match and Christiaan Jonker was at the other end sending some of the pacey Bristol West Indies bowlers to all parts of Claverham and surrounding fields. Jonker went on to score 1,049 runs in 16 League games and last year made his mark on the international scene representing South Africa in T20 and ODI formats. Also playing in the league that season (and who will be returning for the 2019 season) was South African fast bowler, Kyle Abbot, who was playing for Clevedon during the same season. Given Ryan’s experience of cricket in the West Country, Wales and down under, 12 seasons on, Ryan admitted he did not have the best first season he was hoping for with Lansdown in Premier 2 (13 innings, accumulating 257 runs with an average of 21.42). However, he did bow out of last year’s season orchestrating 90 runs in the final game of the season which saw his new club promoted to West of England Premier League One. He hopes the hard work throughout the winter will reward him come the 2019 season.

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Given Lansdown's relatively young squad, Dominic Hooper is one of the youngest of the team at age 21. One of his first memories of the cricket pitch is going to Claverham as a young lad where he played alongside his dad and his brother and, as many of us were, was just happy to always be playing cricket. Although being quite small as a cricketer, Dom, similarly to Ryan, was involved with the 1st X1 at Claverham and Gloucestershire Academy which he attested helped his overall game. When he arrived with Ryan to Combe Park at the beginning of the 2018 season, and despite playing in the same league as Claverham, in his opinion, the Lansdown team ‘dominated’; something not achieved by his former club. By trade, the team relies on his bowling skills, including his well disguised slower ball. However, in recent years, his batting has proven devastating in the West of England Leagues, often taking the game away from the opponent’s batting in the middle order. Emblematic of this was Dom’s match winning performance of 75*, followed by 8 overs, 22 runs and 4 wickets against Taunton Cricket Club last season.

Dom expressed his eagerness for the season ahead despite not having ever played in a Premier One cricket fixture, nevertheless, during the winter he’s not working on anything apart from getting rid of the cobwebs. When asked why, he replied,

‘I’m not specifically, [as] Prem 1 Is a bit easier because everyone knows everyone. And you know what the players are capable [or incapable] of.’

Prior to Dom going back to bowl at his teammates, he rounded off by describing his favourite memory of cricket which came when he scored his maiden hundred for Claverham 2nd X1 vs Clevedon 2nd X1 to win the match aged 13. For Dom being ‘only a quite small cricketer’ to score a 100 proves it has not always been his bowling the teams he played for have benefited from.

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After running a quick single with his batting partner, one of Lansdown’s openers, Jordan Smith, joined me at Bowler’s End and explained it was good to get ‘the boys’ together and work on a few things during the winter. As a batter, Jordan was pleased to see the bowlers were bowling good lengths, but as all top order batsmen do, he was ‘sat waiting for the bad ball’. Jordan is relishing the cricketing opportunity of Premier One and ‘Can’t wait to get stuck in, first season in Prem 1’. As with any promotion or relegation, Jordan is looking forward to going to new grounds and ‘seeing what it’s all about’. Despite being a relatively young opening bat, Jordan is looking forward to doing the hard work during the winter and consequently, he hopes that the results will follow and his teammates will do well in their first appearance in Premier one since 1992.

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For Ollie Gooding, the winter nets were beneficial as bowlers ‘have an early opportunity to practise their rhythm from a shorter run up and focus on their delivery stance at the crease’. For the batsmen, the winter nets present a chance to get in to an early season groove. After an injury to his elbow halfway through the 2018 season, Ollie consequently lost his place in the 1st X1. As he explained, the injury resulted in hard work to reclaim his spot and plans to continue working hard, whilst avoiding getting injured before the season starts. Having always played his cricket at Combe Park, his aim for 2019 is to continue to develop his bowling skills with specific focus on increasing his pace and staying tall in his delivery which will allow him to be more consistently accurate during his spell to contribute to the 1st X1’s campaign.

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Following a high intense session with the coach and facing the wrath of the bowling machine, Josh Smith was the last player to shed some light on Cricket. Talking about his first experience of cricket, he said his brother Jordan and Dad, Shaun, would play back garden cricket on the freshly prepared strip as much as they could with Josh getting 3 lives whilst he batted. Having initially pursued a career in football playing for Bristol City Youth, Josh still kept his ‘eye in’ playing for Bitton Cricket Club Youth teams. Josh expressed that he is [and was] ‘always an all-rounder’. He scored runs and took wickets, which he made sound quite easy. Having made a name for himself locally, he was scouted to train with Gloucestershire in the Youth Development Programme. After making the transition to Senior Cricket at Bitton CC, playing in the 3rd X1 ‘on horrible pitches’ accompanied by ‘horrible teas’, Josh was never given the chance to move on to play at a higher level. With his Family returning to Combe Park, given their Dad’s long career at the club starting in the 1980s, he became a Lansdown player along with older brother Jordan.

In his first season of his new cricketing chapter in Bath, Josh started in the Saturday 3rd X1. As a youngster proving his rank, he never did ‘too much, but showed potential’. The higher the standard of the opposition, ‘the more his game improved and the better a performance he produced in the middle; the better cricket came out’. Although confessing he never did too much, Josh felt that ‘the powers that be saw a talent for the future’, as he ultimately hoped to progress through to the Saturday First Eleven. After a season in the second team he made his 1st X1 debut in 2015 under then skipper, Thomas Hankins - not a bad debut taking ‘just’ the 4 wickets! Despite preferring to bowl, in his opinion “rockets”, he continues to work on his batting and opened the batting for the club during the 2018 season; quite a tough demand for a young player one might argue. Opening the batting and bowling on a Saturday is a demand that few readers may have experienced, however, Josh had to overcome battling growth spurts, recurring back problems and shin splints earlier in his Lansdown and Gloucestershire days. For Josh, he has now begun to understand his body and closely monitors the impact before, during and after a match – something for all young up-and-coming cricketers to take on board.

Now understanding and listening to his body and spending time monitoring it, he ‘can’t do everything he wants to’ and has had to ‘reign in his game’. He has enjoyed opening the batting and the bowling for the club and has a clear focus to continue developing his batting to continue his all-rounder status. Recognising and respecting his body, alongside his ongoing understanding of the sport, when asked how he was building towards Premier One, he replied that he was, ‘not [doing] too much differently’. Despite not having too much experience and ability at the highest level of recreational cricket, he hopes to apply it in the right way. Josh also added that he was ‘not scared of any Premier 1 players’ as he expressed, the better his opponents are, the more it brings the best out of him and the better he plays; he loves a challenge. For Josh, the nets at Bath Cricket Club are fast pitched nets which allow a ‘good feel of bat on ball’, something all cricketers need prior to the start of the campaign. He said that with the hard work in the nets and the challenge ahead, getting the boys together was essential for the team during the 2019 season.

I asked him about his experience at Gloucestershire Cricket Club, playing in the youth set up and then the Gloucestershire Academy in his late teens. He reiterated the help that the coaches had given him and how that guidance had advanced his game. However, the stand out moment for him was his debut for the 2nd X1 against a Nottinghamshire side who had, Billy Root, Dan Christian and Michael Lumb in their side. Trying to explain his emotions and feelings when he was chucked the ball to open up the bowling was easy for Josh and he was not shy in admitting,

‘The first time I’ve ever been nervous bowling, ever! [The] First ball just felt weird, it felt like I’d never done it before’.

However, after being given another over, and another, he soon settled into the game. Depsite not taking any wickets, he did mention (as a number of fast bowlers do) that there was one LBW shout when he was bowling against Lumb who he claims was out Leg Before Wicket but, ‘funnily enough’ the Umpire did not give it out – Umpires hey! Making further appearances for Gloucestershire 2nd X1 and settling in to the team, Josh explained that when he is comfortable at the start of his run up or facing his first delivery he performs better.

Finally, after being asked to identify the best player he had played with or against, Michael Lumb was the best name Josh had played against (and to this day still believes he got him out). After some deliberation, he concluded that, ability wise, it was George Hankins. Throughout Josh’s time playing and training with Hankins, he felt that the natural ability and hard work ethos combination were evident to all and made ‘him [Hankins]stand out the most and made him the best to watch’, but not, one can imagine, to bowl at. Hankins in the past couple of seasons has broken into and established himself in the Gloucestershire CCC 1st X1 in both red and white ball cricket he finished 2018 with a batting average of 52.80 in the Royal London One-Day Cup. During the 2019 West of England Premier One League Season, Josh and his Lansdown team mates may get the chance to bowl against Hankins who, when not playing for Gloucestershire CCC, plays his cricket at Bath CC. They will also cross paths with other professional cricketers such as Kyle Abbot who represented South Africa in all three formats who will be returning to Clevedon Cricket Club when not on duty for Hampshire CCC. All who were interviewed at the winter net session will be hoping their early preparation pays dividends when they take to the field in May taking to the field against top class cricketers.

As expressed throughout the interview with the players from Lansdown Cricket Club, and what will most likely be somewhat of a recurring theme throughout Over, Time & Umps, is that many cricketers started at a young age having been influenced by their parents or an older sibling. How many are able to relate to their first experience of cricket; whether watching a match at the local cricket club, chasing a tennis ball your father had flicked off his legs in to the sea from the beach, playing with friends at school using the bin as the stumps, or even, back garden cricket? Those formative snippets of cricket which set the platform, which enticed, prepared and the cornerstone for later life, post age group cricket, senior cricket. That first call up for the local Cricket Club who are a player short, playing away against The Middle of Nowhere CC, fielding fine leg to long-on for 3 hours on a Saturday afternoon, perhaps being lucky enough to scratch around for double figures with the bat, loving every single moment and not being able to contain the flood of excitement that would unfold on anyone who would listen, willingly or not, upon the return to the club after the match. Or for others, those with natural ability for the sport, this early introduction to the cricket pitch, hard work and a constant desire has led them to represent Clubs, such as the Lansdown interviewees, County, or even for some - Country. It is, after all, for all lovers of cricket the first memories of the game that stick with them until the end of their innings.

Combe Park

Umps