The Great Escape

Norwell – nicknamed “Pasty” due to his Cornish roots – and club stalwart Oliver Hannon-Dalby sent down all but seven of the 43.5 overs in a herculean display of ...

Thankfully everything was fine but after all that time sleeping in a chair on the ward, my back went and a stop-start season followed. I told him: “It’s breaking my heart, mate.” To find out afterwards Liam was feeling the same, 150m away, was kind of cool in a way. But in the last two years I’ve really started to look closely at it and it has made a massive difference. To be in a relegation battle was horrible. So it was just get it full, get the stumps in play. LN I used to have a token look at the analysis. OHD It was one of those tricky catches – 20 yards to cover the ball swirling – but it went in nicely. In fact he had an incredible match as skipper, with the first-innings declaration and then the nature of needing wickets with so few runs to play with. He simplified my game, stripped it back to two grips – an outswinger and a wobble seam – with my angle, it creates doubt for the batter. I got a solid maiden in, which calmed my nerves and maybe calmed the team. Norwell – nicknamed “Pasty” due to his Cornish roots – and club stalwart Oliver Hannon-Dalby sent down all but seven of the 43.5 overs in a herculean display of seam bowling. I got a first-baller at the back end, trudged off, sat down in the dressing room, texted my wife and told her: “We’re done.