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Nickname/s
Wimpy
Date of Birth
11th November 1962
Bats
Right-handed
Bowls
Yes, when asked. Used to bowl slow right arm, now I would bowl very slow right arm. On occassions I think that I can bowl better than some of the crap that is thrown half way down each week.
Specialist Fielding Position
Slip and if absolutely necessary extra cover as long as there is cover behind and to the sides but don't ask I will tell you when I think it's neccessary.
Best Batting
Best score 154 or 156 vs Bishops Stortford.
Best Bowling
7-42 in 1978.
Previous Clubs
None.
Brentwood CC Member since
1976
On-field Club duties
Captaining the third XI. Although Ken is captain in name it is a well known fact that I captain the side.
Off-field Club duties
Bar chairman.
Awards
3rd team player of the year 2004; young player of year 1990 something.
Little known personal fact
Second longest playing member in the club. Made my debut in 1975 scoring six not out at number 7 for the third team captained by David (lick both hands) Alton with such players as the three Potters - Bernard, Mark and Adrian, Peter Massey and Bob Triggs.
Sporting hero(es)
Geoff Boycott for the fact that he would never give away his wicket and the fact that he was, and still is, able to wind up virtually anybody with his northern attitude (he reminds me of Pies in this regard of being able to judge a person within a minute (normally wrong) and never give the individual a chance).
Hobbies or Interests
Chess where I have represented Essex and England U18s. Now drinking lager and eating curries.
Worst Moment
I have two worst moments, one as a captain being relegated in the Saturday 2's when my opening attack was the fearsome Rob Coote and Ash Patel and the batting strength was made up of Berry, Coote and Townson while the first team was going in with 9 batsmen and Ben Cocklin, the eleventh player being Belly. (Thanks Mick). The 1's were promoted, the 2's got relegated. Sound familiar?
The other worst moment was under the captaincy of Alan Nugent in the 80's. We had just been turned down for a catch behind taken at slip by myself due to the umpire being a cheating b******. During the short debate Nuge requested the ball back. Well, I will claim to this day that it was not done intentionally, and anyone who has seen my arm will know that this seems unlikely, but the ball left my hand on its way back to Nuge at the pace of a fast ball pitcher for the Yankees. Unfortunately Nuge was standing by the cheating umpire. Nuge saw it coming and rugby tackled the umpire to get him out of the way. I was yelled at to apologise to the umpire and go and collect the ball that had just thudded into the pavilion. I did not play for the twos the rest of that season despite scoring 73 not out in that game.
As an afterthought there is one further worst moment. It was sitting with my pads on watching Malcolm Webb and John Davey both get 100s against Homesdale, Kent. They were both dropped 5 times and they took 2 hr 55 mins to 220-0 dec. What a bore.
Most Memorable Match
Several. I have had various innings with Ash that have all been run chases. Old Brentwoods was comical as their captain at one point had a backstop and 4 men in a line between 3rd slip and 3rd man at about 20 pace intervals and Ash still managed to sky one between them. We won the game in the
last over after chasing 7 an over for lots of overs.
The win against Woodford Wells chasing nearly 300 with Dave Childs clubbing it everywhere, a Sunday 2's game against Broxbourne who put out their first team and scored 291 of 34 overs and our side had an average age of 16 we scored 289-9 off 37 overs with Andy Tomlinson scoring 125 and myself 82 with their
opening first team bowler with 60 wickets going for 59 off 4 overs.
Any time I bat with Tony Prior always seems to be an event. We never seem to know when we should lie down and just accept a draw. Mistley provided me with two memorable matches. The first was when they
had successfully defeated the Vics in their cricket week for 3 years I decided to take a strong side I tossed up and they said they better bat because they had a very strong side with 9 first teamers. My opening attack was Richard Whitehall, Danesh, Munif (Bexleyheath opening bowler) and Chris Jolly.
Apart from their overseas player Emmett who scored 116 the rest of them accumulated 40. We knocked the runs off with Danesh smashing the ball into the graveyard and the church with 18 overs to spare. We were never invited back.
And as final game as captain we were defending a low total after batting badly the Vics gave 200% in the field with Skinny Vanderhoven and Joff bowling in tandem to restrict the opposition we won a very tight contest and you guessed it, we have not been invited back
Other
Running a five to gully with Jon Coote against Clacton. This was a pure comedy moment. Jon and I used to run well between the wickets together and on this occassion we went on the nod I defended a delivery that headed very slowly towards gully looked at Jon and ran. Gully hurled the ball at the stumps and missed, square-leg partly stopped it I turned and we set off for a second. Square-leg gathered in the ball as Jon made it home for his second he called yes one for the throw I said no the ball came in
over the top the keeper took the bails off and Jon was run out by half a pitch. Unfortunately for the Clacton keeper I had my bat grounded at the same end Jon was running to, the keeper in disgust threw the ball down on the ground Jon shouted run which I duly did the keeper picked the ball up but his throw went over the top of the fielder trying to get to the bowlers end and we ended with an all ran 5.
Another match that showed at a very early age my disrespect for captains came in the early 80's when John Davey was captain and Lats had opened the bowling against Ilford. Within 4 overs we had 9 men on the boundary and the score was 69 without loss we managed to peg it back with the Potter flighted filth and ended up chasing 200.
I went into bat at no 5 needing 120 off 21 overs. Jon strode towards me and gave me instructions of what he wanted me to do. "Bat out for a draw," he stated. "F*** off," I responded and walked away. He chased me all the way to the strikers end telling me he was captain and I should bat for the draw.
The first ball I faced resulted in a wild swing across the line connecting with the ball and depositing it into the bowls rink. More comments from the captain as the second and third ball went for 4. Not long after John was run out and a true run chase was attempted. We failed but didn't lose.
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