EAST RIDING CRICKET SOCIETY

Apologies from our chairman and a new opportunity to write down questions for the speaker were the prelude to a helter-skelter evening. Paul Farbrace gave no sign of needing anything as simple as breath as he took us on an engaging and entertaining rattle through his cricket life and memories. With a mother who made cricket teas, and a father and two older brothers who played, Paul usually started as the 'extra' for an opposition short of a man or two.  He signed for Kent in 1986 after a year as a would-be goalkeeper at Coventry City, which ended when Steve Ogrizovic told him that he lacked two attributes for this role: height and ability!  He played as understudy to keeper Steve Marsh and was lucky enough play with one of his heroes, Derek Underwood, in the great man’s last game.  Moving next to Middlesex, he was part of their Championship-winning team but his true calling has proved to be coaching. Kent's Colin Page was an example of an 'old school c

W ell, there we were! We few, we happy few, we band of cricket fans – and not so few either. Around 7pm the gathering started, culminating in around 45 of us.  Familiar and welcome faces, new and equally welcome ones too.  The return of the smiles and greetings we’d missed out on. In a new venue, too.  Thanks to Simon Foster, we reconvened in Beverley Town CC's clubhouse alongside the pitch and scoreboard – how appropriate.  New venue, new private bar, new meeting day – and miraculously Brian's new confident handling of the PA system. I think he spent the last two years practising! Same format though, same expectations of a night of cricket talk and the airing of some robust opinions.  Not wrong there, then.  Mr Kevin Howells kicked us off for the new season – one of the voices of cricket. Familiar tones, familiar passion for the game expressed honestly and fluently. Essentially he dwelt on three themes during the course of the evening: intertwined and revealing o