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Trevor Henry Bursary - Michael Foster
OLD TRAFFORD, 21-24 MAY 2016
It is difficult to know where to begin with the report on the Trevor Henry Bursary for 2016, and I hope readers will excuse my inability to distil the content down to the brevity which these days is usually expected and sometimes demanded. Having been an umpire for 3 full seasons, entering my 4th, I had had the opportunity to hear from the Chairman, from Howard and from Phil about their experiences as past recipients of the honour, and therefore had a broad awareness of the nature of the trip, but the reality far surpassed any expectation I may have formed prior to boarding Easyjet Flight 132 at just after 8am on Saturday 21 May. What followed was, put simply, a brilliant and memorable 4 days in Manchester, filled with information, learning, fun and entertainment.
I had been given my itinerary in advance by the ever helpful Paddy O'Hara, who had acted as the NIACUS link with Chris Kelly, the ECB umpire supremo, and the pair of them had sorted out the detail - accommodation in a city centre hotel, the names of the umpires and, as a bonus, and I think a first for this trip, the addition of Steve Davis, former test umpire, as cricket liaision officer for the ECB who would be attending during my stay. My first port of call, after a smooth check in at the hotel, was reception at the Players and Media Centre at Old Trafford Cricket Ground, where I was met by Dave Halliday, a super friendly administrator at Lancashire County Cricket Club, and he sorted me with my "access all areas" pass and took me upstairs where the umpires had already arrived.
I was aware in advance that for the Saturday - a T20 blast affair against Derbyshire - I would be with Russell Evans (who, if being honest, I hadn't heard of before the trip) and Richard Kettleborough, who I knew to be an international umpire (as it turns out, the No.1 ranked umpire in world cricket!). As soon as I arrived in the umpire's changing room (which was sumptuous) I was immediately put at ease by the two boys. It became apparent very quickly that, despite their consummate professionalism, they were both down to earth guys and the banter between them, and subsequently with me, was a highlight of the trip.
However, to begin with, the weather wasn't playing ball, but that gave me a good insight as to how these guys deal with weather situations. "Ketts" was particularly conscientious and immediately set to work on a table of scenarios with different timings to reflect the latest cut off time, working with Russell to have, to hand, a series of times/overs left at his disposal should a start time be agreed. It looked, on my arrival at 12.30pm, with the rain belting across the Old Trafford turf, and the radar being underwhelming in its optimism for the afternoon, that I could be in for a frustrating first day, made more acute with reports from home of sunshine and starts in all our local games. But this was to be Manchester's nadir and, judging by later reports, Belfast's zenith as at around 2.30 (the scheduled start) the rain ceased and the mopping up exercise began. The boys linked in closely with the groundstaff and the agreed verdict was a 3.45pm start, 19 overs per side (we had an hour of free time at our disposal for this game).
I was able to watch the pre-match routines of the umpires, and then settled down to view the game itself. It turned out to be a one-sided affair. Derbyshire won the toss, which was probably pivotal, as the pitch was difficult enough after the rain, and Lancs could only muster around 130. Derbyshire knocked this off with ease in around 13 overs to win by 9 wickets. From an umpiring perspective, it was a fairly uncontentious affair, just the way we like it with no quarrels or discipline issues, but it was clear that Russell and Ketts had a good rapport, a very clear working understanding, and were there to help each other out at all times. In the interim, I had met Steve Davis, the recently retired Aussie test umpire, who is in England for a 7 month stint as one of ECB's 5 cricket liaison officers (CLO). The role of the CLO is to observe - his remit covers the umpires, the players and the ground in practice. He looks at how the umpires officiate the game (without undertaking the formal critique that would be associated with an assessor), seeing how they react in the aftermath of decision making and providing advice and assistance to the umpire at times. He also acts as a link between captains/coaches and the umpiring team, and will report back on the ground. Steve has a busy schedule this summer but he may need to invest in a slightly better SATNAV, an issue that became a running joke throughout the 4 days between himself and the umpires. He took longer to get to OT from Leicester that morning, than I did to get from Lisburn!!
My first day therefore was a very interesting and enjoyable one. We were well fed and watered by the Lancashire organisation, and after a couple of sociable shandies with Russell (who was to umpire the championship game starting the next day) it was time for some rest before the action recommenced on Sunday.
Sunday was day one of the Championship match against Surrey and Russell and I headed off to the ground at 8.30am. The first face I saw on arrival at the ground was a familiar one - none other than Surrey, Ireland and CSNI's very own Gary Wilson. I have "fond" memories of Gary smashing me around the ground when he was about 12 playing 2nd XI cricket a good while ago, and have kept an eye on his progress ever since. I had a chat with him, explained why I was there etc, and looked forward to seeing him notch a few runs later in the day. Sadly however, when the team sheets arrived, he was down as 12th man, and hopefully he can regain his place in the first team soon.
The other umpire for this match was Tim Robinson. Most readers will remember him as a decent opening batsman for Notts and England back in the 80s/early 90s, and as an international umpire. "Robbo" is a very different personality from Russell Evans, a real Northern "say it how it is" character who could be fairly direct at times, but I found him to be humorous, interesting, as well as a damn good umpire. I joined Russ, Robbo and Steve Davis for the preliminaries, and listened in on some good advice flowing from Steve, particularly to Russ, who is a relatively new umpire on the first class scene and who I found to be keen to get feedback on various aspects of his umpiring and development.
With the toss taking place on this occasion (the regulations now allow the away side to bowl, or if they do not want to do so, a toss takes place), Surrey won it and decided to have a bat. We reckoned this was probably the right decision, as it was the same pitch used in the T20 game and it had taken spin, so the generally accepted view was batting 4th would be hard, and the spinners would prosper. As it turned out, of the 30 wickets to fall, only 2 would be to the slow stuff. Surrey struggled early, being reduced to 40/5, and ultimately limped to 191 all out on day one, with Lancs batting out the day to finish on 16/0. There were a few tight decisions on the opening day. Russ gave Sangakkara out lbw, and Sanga looked like he didn't share the analysis. Russ indicated he felt it was stone dead. This was where Steve's role took on its importance. I sat with him throughout the day in the analysis booth high above the pitch with a fantastic view of proceedings, and he was able to look at the ball and decision through the Surrey and Lancashire analysts, who video every ball. I got to see the dismissal, and to my eye, it looked like a perfectly good decision, the ball pitching on leg/middle leg, hitting Sanga below the knee role on the crease, and going on to hit middle and off/off stump. Steve indicated he was less concerned about the decision, but was more interested in Russell's reaction to it and in the aftermath was looking for changes in his body language, or anything that pointed to him ruminating about the decision, a test that Russ passed with flying colours as he calmly continued with his duties.
This first day of the game saw nothing overly contentious, perhaps a bit of chirp between some of the players, particularly, it seemed, to and from Jason Roy, but the umpires were satisfied at this stage that it hadn't crossed any line. I was able to observe how they judged matters such as time lost for stoppages in relation to over rates, but did notice the dynamic between Robbo and Russ was slightly different from the pairing the day before. Robbo is a highly experienced umpire and doesn't appear to need or seek too much in the way of assistance from his colleague. The level of interaction was kept to the essentials, whereas the day before the pairing had been much more proactive, but that did not in any way detract from the professionalism of both on show on day 1.
I travelled back to the hotel with Steve, partly because the day before he had got lost again and had taken 45 mins for the 10 min trip, and I was thereafter known as his Irish SATNAV. After a decent meal with the boys, where we were joined by Steve and his wife Ann who is over for a few months, we adjourned and were fresh and ready for day 2, my last scheduled day with the team. Again, I was able to observe the preliminaries pitch side, and received an excellent tip on where to stand for various bowlers, and how to ensure that the perfect seeing position, dead centre on middle stump can be assured. Steve (who arrived at the ground via a local Muslim Primary school this time) and I went upstairs to the booth as play commenced, and at this point I was treated to another unexpected surprise, as shortly after the morning session began, there was a knock on the door from a visitor, none other than Bumble himself, David Lloyd.
Steve introduced me, but Bumble was on the ball, spotting my Lisburn CC 175th anniversary cricket tie which I was sporting for the day. That immediately set in flow a long chat about Lisburn specifically Cecil Walker who is a good friend of Bumble, and that progressed into stories of Cecil, Alfie Linehan and others leading Bumble astray in a variety of venues. I will save the stories for later, but suffice to say this was a fabulously entertaining hour in which he regaled Steve and I about various things, gave us some of the lowdown on the test/Sky sports scene, and even did a spot of commentary in his own inimitable way when there were a couple of close decisions turned down by Russ off the Surrey opening bowler and England touted Tom Curran, a raw 19 year old with a temperament to match. What a morning!
Again, Steve was on hand to look at these types of close calls, and again it looked very much like Russ (all of the action had been at his end in the first 4 sessions) had got things very much spot on. The afternoon session saw Robbo become centre of attention. All five appeals during this time came from his end, of which he answered 2 positively, and again, they appeared to be on the money. During this day, conscious that it was my last one with the guys, I took the opportunity to probe Steve when he had some time about various things. He told me some very funny stories about things like his funniest moments umpiring (Allan Border, a bump ball, his comments, and the aftermath late that night in the local bar), his favourite grounds (Adelaide Oval, the Oval, and the SCG featuring highly), favourite and least favourite cricketers to umpire (Hashim Amla apparently being an absolute diamond, I won't mention the latter category), worst and best experiences as an umpire (he told me about a test match when he was standing with Gunner Gould and between them they got 17 marginal decisions wrong, with Steve edging it 9-8!), and generally entertaining me with some exceptional memories of a long and distinguished career. And of course, he was able to provide me with tips and guidance, and those elements of our chats will be of great benefit to my own personal development as an umpire.
Also during this day I enjoyed lunch at the same table as Freddy Flintoff and Jimmy Anderson, who had both popped in on free days to watch some of the game. I certainly can't fault them for popping in an lunch time - the food available would make our renowned teas at Wallace Park look like a couple of stale ham sandwiches at a 4th XI game - and the staff at OT looked after me in an exceptional manner. With a full day's play taking place, I was also able to watch a very polished century by Alviro Peterson, and there were a couple of contentious decisions to observe as well. Alviro didn't look too pleased with an adjudged inside edge to the keeper, the decision delivered by Robbo, but the video evidence and the sound heard by Russ at square leg pointed conclusively in favour of the decision. Russ gave the home captain out lbw - always a dangerous ploy - and this was perhaps the one decision of the game that he may have erred in. The replay showed that the bowler bowling wide of the crease hit the batsman around middle and it may have been sliding down, but it was a marginal call, and as Russ says, there is absolutely no merit in fixating on marginal decisions, which can go either way, and in the subsequent debrief, no issue was made by either captain.
Another decent meal, this time with just the 2 boys, but at this point they learned I was not due to fly home until the next evening, so they absolutely insisted I come in with them the next day for day 3 of the game, and Steve also indicated he would have no issue with that at all. So another bonus - an extra day at OT - the shopping for presents for the better half and the kids put on hold. The plan was to stay until lunch (there was even a pudding!), but as it turned out I was there for the end of the game! Having amassed a total of 341/9 and a lead of 150, Lancashire came out to bat on day 3 with the intention of securing a 4th batting bonus point, for which they needed 9 runs in 2 overs. As it turned out, numbers 10 and 11 had a ball for 45 mins, swinging from the hip and extending the home side lead to over 200, as the Surrey body language changed completely. They had Surrey in a spot of bother by lunch, 2 down (which was effectively 3 down as opening bat Burns, who top scored with 91 first innings, had suffered a concussion and would take no further part in the game). I decided to stay on up with Steve for a few more overs, but, like a Friday evening down the pub, that last pint became just one more, and as wickets tumbled, I stayed on until the last pair were at the wicket. It was only then that I said my goodbyes - finally - and headed towards the exit where I met Gary Wilson again, and we had a yarn for 10 minutes in which he put forward his own very interesting views on the recent Newsletter article regarding the interpros.
As I left the ground I heard the resonating cheer from the stands signalling the last wicket had fallen to leave an innings win for the home side, and my cunning plan to avoid the crowds on the tram was thwarted! After a quick detour to the Arndale centre to pick up a few gifts, time was called on my trip and I made my way back to the airport for the short flight home, and back to porridge. This was an exceptional experience. A once in a lifetime opportunity to get up close and personal with the best in the game. It was a unique opportunity and one that will not only benefit me developmentally, but one which will register with me for years to come. I have made new mates (Russell in particular who was very interactive, supportive and friendly) and met some hugely knowledgeable individuals, not least the fabulous Steve Davis. My thanks go out to all of those guys - Steve, Russ, Robbo, Richard Kettleborough, to the Lancs staff - Dave, Mark and Ash, and to Chris Kelly and our own Paddy O'Hara for setting all of this up. I cannot emphasise enough how interesting and helpful the 4 days were, but most of all it summed up what cricket is all about - having fun, building friendships and enjoying our fine sport. If next year's recipient has half as good a time they will have an absolute ball.
Michael Foster
It is difficult to know where to begin with the report on the Trevor Henry Bursary for 2016, and I hope readers will excuse my inability to distil the content down to the brevity which these days is usually expected and sometimes demanded. Having been an umpire for 3 full seasons, entering my 4th, I had had the opportunity to hear from the Chairman, from Howard and from Phil about their experiences as past recipients of the honour, and therefore had a broad awareness of the nature of the trip, but the reality far surpassed any expectation I may have formed prior to boarding Easyjet Flight 132 at just after 8am on Saturday 21 May. What followed was, put simply, a brilliant and memorable 4 days in Manchester, filled with information, learning, fun and entertainment.
I had been given my itinerary in advance by the ever helpful Paddy O'Hara, who had acted as the NIACUS link with Chris Kelly, the ECB umpire supremo, and the pair of them had sorted out the detail - accommodation in a city centre hotel, the names of the umpires and, as a bonus, and I think a first for this trip, the addition of Steve Davis, former test umpire, as cricket liaision officer for the ECB who would be attending during my stay. My first port of call, after a smooth check in at the hotel, was reception at the Players and Media Centre at Old Trafford Cricket Ground, where I was met by Dave Halliday, a super friendly administrator at Lancashire County Cricket Club, and he sorted me with my "access all areas" pass and took me upstairs where the umpires had already arrived.
I was aware in advance that for the Saturday - a T20 blast affair against Derbyshire - I would be with Russell Evans (who, if being honest, I hadn't heard of before the trip) and Richard Kettleborough, who I knew to be an international umpire (as it turns out, the No.1 ranked umpire in world cricket!). As soon as I arrived in the umpire's changing room (which was sumptuous) I was immediately put at ease by the two boys. It became apparent very quickly that, despite their consummate professionalism, they were both down to earth guys and the banter between them, and subsequently with me, was a highlight of the trip.
However, to begin with, the weather wasn't playing ball, but that gave me a good insight as to how these guys deal with weather situations. "Ketts" was particularly conscientious and immediately set to work on a table of scenarios with different timings to reflect the latest cut off time, working with Russell to have, to hand, a series of times/overs left at his disposal should a start time be agreed. It looked, on my arrival at 12.30pm, with the rain belting across the Old Trafford turf, and the radar being underwhelming in its optimism for the afternoon, that I could be in for a frustrating first day, made more acute with reports from home of sunshine and starts in all our local games. But this was to be Manchester's nadir and, judging by later reports, Belfast's zenith as at around 2.30 (the scheduled start) the rain ceased and the mopping up exercise began. The boys linked in closely with the groundstaff and the agreed verdict was a 3.45pm start, 19 overs per side (we had an hour of free time at our disposal for this game).
I was able to watch the pre-match routines of the umpires, and then settled down to view the game itself. It turned out to be a one-sided affair. Derbyshire won the toss, which was probably pivotal, as the pitch was difficult enough after the rain, and Lancs could only muster around 130. Derbyshire knocked this off with ease in around 13 overs to win by 9 wickets. From an umpiring perspective, it was a fairly uncontentious affair, just the way we like it with no quarrels or discipline issues, but it was clear that Russell and Ketts had a good rapport, a very clear working understanding, and were there to help each other out at all times. In the interim, I had met Steve Davis, the recently retired Aussie test umpire, who is in England for a 7 month stint as one of ECB's 5 cricket liaison officers (CLO). The role of the CLO is to observe - his remit covers the umpires, the players and the ground in practice. He looks at how the umpires officiate the game (without undertaking the formal critique that would be associated with an assessor), seeing how they react in the aftermath of decision making and providing advice and assistance to the umpire at times. He also acts as a link between captains/coaches and the umpiring team, and will report back on the ground. Steve has a busy schedule this summer but he may need to invest in a slightly better SATNAV, an issue that became a running joke throughout the 4 days between himself and the umpires. He took longer to get to OT from Leicester that morning, than I did to get from Lisburn!!
My first day therefore was a very interesting and enjoyable one. We were well fed and watered by the Lancashire organisation, and after a couple of sociable shandies with Russell (who was to umpire the championship game starting the next day) it was time for some rest before the action recommenced on Sunday.
Sunday was day one of the Championship match against Surrey and Russell and I headed off to the ground at 8.30am. The first face I saw on arrival at the ground was a familiar one - none other than Surrey, Ireland and CSNI's very own Gary Wilson. I have "fond" memories of Gary smashing me around the ground when he was about 12 playing 2nd XI cricket a good while ago, and have kept an eye on his progress ever since. I had a chat with him, explained why I was there etc, and looked forward to seeing him notch a few runs later in the day. Sadly however, when the team sheets arrived, he was down as 12th man, and hopefully he can regain his place in the first team soon.
The other umpire for this match was Tim Robinson. Most readers will remember him as a decent opening batsman for Notts and England back in the 80s/early 90s, and as an international umpire. "Robbo" is a very different personality from Russell Evans, a real Northern "say it how it is" character who could be fairly direct at times, but I found him to be humorous, interesting, as well as a damn good umpire. I joined Russ, Robbo and Steve Davis for the preliminaries, and listened in on some good advice flowing from Steve, particularly to Russ, who is a relatively new umpire on the first class scene and who I found to be keen to get feedback on various aspects of his umpiring and development.
With the toss taking place on this occasion (the regulations now allow the away side to bowl, or if they do not want to do so, a toss takes place), Surrey won it and decided to have a bat. We reckoned this was probably the right decision, as it was the same pitch used in the T20 game and it had taken spin, so the generally accepted view was batting 4th would be hard, and the spinners would prosper. As it turned out, of the 30 wickets to fall, only 2 would be to the slow stuff. Surrey struggled early, being reduced to 40/5, and ultimately limped to 191 all out on day one, with Lancs batting out the day to finish on 16/0. There were a few tight decisions on the opening day. Russ gave Sangakkara out lbw, and Sanga looked like he didn't share the analysis. Russ indicated he felt it was stone dead. This was where Steve's role took on its importance. I sat with him throughout the day in the analysis booth high above the pitch with a fantastic view of proceedings, and he was able to look at the ball and decision through the Surrey and Lancashire analysts, who video every ball. I got to see the dismissal, and to my eye, it looked like a perfectly good decision, the ball pitching on leg/middle leg, hitting Sanga below the knee role on the crease, and going on to hit middle and off/off stump. Steve indicated he was less concerned about the decision, but was more interested in Russell's reaction to it and in the aftermath was looking for changes in his body language, or anything that pointed to him ruminating about the decision, a test that Russ passed with flying colours as he calmly continued with his duties.
This first day of the game saw nothing overly contentious, perhaps a bit of chirp between some of the players, particularly, it seemed, to and from Jason Roy, but the umpires were satisfied at this stage that it hadn't crossed any line. I was able to observe how they judged matters such as time lost for stoppages in relation to over rates, but did notice the dynamic between Robbo and Russ was slightly different from the pairing the day before. Robbo is a highly experienced umpire and doesn't appear to need or seek too much in the way of assistance from his colleague. The level of interaction was kept to the essentials, whereas the day before the pairing had been much more proactive, but that did not in any way detract from the professionalism of both on show on day 1.
I travelled back to the hotel with Steve, partly because the day before he had got lost again and had taken 45 mins for the 10 min trip, and I was thereafter known as his Irish SATNAV. After a decent meal with the boys, where we were joined by Steve and his wife Ann who is over for a few months, we adjourned and were fresh and ready for day 2, my last scheduled day with the team. Again, I was able to observe the preliminaries pitch side, and received an excellent tip on where to stand for various bowlers, and how to ensure that the perfect seeing position, dead centre on middle stump can be assured. Steve (who arrived at the ground via a local Muslim Primary school this time) and I went upstairs to the booth as play commenced, and at this point I was treated to another unexpected surprise, as shortly after the morning session began, there was a knock on the door from a visitor, none other than Bumble himself, David Lloyd.
Steve introduced me, but Bumble was on the ball, spotting my Lisburn CC 175th anniversary cricket tie which I was sporting for the day. That immediately set in flow a long chat about Lisburn specifically Cecil Walker who is a good friend of Bumble, and that progressed into stories of Cecil, Alfie Linehan and others leading Bumble astray in a variety of venues. I will save the stories for later, but suffice to say this was a fabulously entertaining hour in which he regaled Steve and I about various things, gave us some of the lowdown on the test/Sky sports scene, and even did a spot of commentary in his own inimitable way when there were a couple of close decisions turned down by Russ off the Surrey opening bowler and England touted Tom Curran, a raw 19 year old with a temperament to match. What a morning!
Again, Steve was on hand to look at these types of close calls, and again it looked very much like Russ (all of the action had been at his end in the first 4 sessions) had got things very much spot on. The afternoon session saw Robbo become centre of attention. All five appeals during this time came from his end, of which he answered 2 positively, and again, they appeared to be on the money. During this day, conscious that it was my last one with the guys, I took the opportunity to probe Steve when he had some time about various things. He told me some very funny stories about things like his funniest moments umpiring (Allan Border, a bump ball, his comments, and the aftermath late that night in the local bar), his favourite grounds (Adelaide Oval, the Oval, and the SCG featuring highly), favourite and least favourite cricketers to umpire (Hashim Amla apparently being an absolute diamond, I won't mention the latter category), worst and best experiences as an umpire (he told me about a test match when he was standing with Gunner Gould and between them they got 17 marginal decisions wrong, with Steve edging it 9-8!), and generally entertaining me with some exceptional memories of a long and distinguished career. And of course, he was able to provide me with tips and guidance, and those elements of our chats will be of great benefit to my own personal development as an umpire.
Also during this day I enjoyed lunch at the same table as Freddy Flintoff and Jimmy Anderson, who had both popped in on free days to watch some of the game. I certainly can't fault them for popping in an lunch time - the food available would make our renowned teas at Wallace Park look like a couple of stale ham sandwiches at a 4th XI game - and the staff at OT looked after me in an exceptional manner. With a full day's play taking place, I was also able to watch a very polished century by Alviro Peterson, and there were a couple of contentious decisions to observe as well. Alviro didn't look too pleased with an adjudged inside edge to the keeper, the decision delivered by Robbo, but the video evidence and the sound heard by Russ at square leg pointed conclusively in favour of the decision. Russ gave the home captain out lbw - always a dangerous ploy - and this was perhaps the one decision of the game that he may have erred in. The replay showed that the bowler bowling wide of the crease hit the batsman around middle and it may have been sliding down, but it was a marginal call, and as Russ says, there is absolutely no merit in fixating on marginal decisions, which can go either way, and in the subsequent debrief, no issue was made by either captain.
Another decent meal, this time with just the 2 boys, but at this point they learned I was not due to fly home until the next evening, so they absolutely insisted I come in with them the next day for day 3 of the game, and Steve also indicated he would have no issue with that at all. So another bonus - an extra day at OT - the shopping for presents for the better half and the kids put on hold. The plan was to stay until lunch (there was even a pudding!), but as it turned out I was there for the end of the game! Having amassed a total of 341/9 and a lead of 150, Lancashire came out to bat on day 3 with the intention of securing a 4th batting bonus point, for which they needed 9 runs in 2 overs. As it turned out, numbers 10 and 11 had a ball for 45 mins, swinging from the hip and extending the home side lead to over 200, as the Surrey body language changed completely. They had Surrey in a spot of bother by lunch, 2 down (which was effectively 3 down as opening bat Burns, who top scored with 91 first innings, had suffered a concussion and would take no further part in the game). I decided to stay on up with Steve for a few more overs, but, like a Friday evening down the pub, that last pint became just one more, and as wickets tumbled, I stayed on until the last pair were at the wicket. It was only then that I said my goodbyes - finally - and headed towards the exit where I met Gary Wilson again, and we had a yarn for 10 minutes in which he put forward his own very interesting views on the recent Newsletter article regarding the interpros.
As I left the ground I heard the resonating cheer from the stands signalling the last wicket had fallen to leave an innings win for the home side, and my cunning plan to avoid the crowds on the tram was thwarted! After a quick detour to the Arndale centre to pick up a few gifts, time was called on my trip and I made my way back to the airport for the short flight home, and back to porridge. This was an exceptional experience. A once in a lifetime opportunity to get up close and personal with the best in the game. It was a unique opportunity and one that will not only benefit me developmentally, but one which will register with me for years to come. I have made new mates (Russell in particular who was very interactive, supportive and friendly) and met some hugely knowledgeable individuals, not least the fabulous Steve Davis. My thanks go out to all of those guys - Steve, Russ, Robbo, Richard Kettleborough, to the Lancs staff - Dave, Mark and Ash, and to Chris Kelly and our own Paddy O'Hara for setting all of this up. I cannot emphasise enough how interesting and helpful the 4 days were, but most of all it summed up what cricket is all about - having fun, building friendships and enjoying our fine sport. If next year's recipient has half as good a time they will have an absolute ball.
Michael Foster
