Sheffield Cricket Lovers' Society Year Book 2012

24 It was a great pleasure to welcome Richard Kettleborough to a Society meeting to start our 2011 meetings. Richard told us that he had been appointed to the E.C.B. list of Umpires in 2006 and entertained with some of his early umpiring anecdotes. It was however his appointment to the ICC International Panel at the end of 2009 which had recognised the progress he had made as an umpire. At the end of 2010 he learned that he was to be included in the panel of 18 umpires to officiate in the 2011 World Cup . He will be the youngest member of the panel and his excitement and anticipation of involvement in the game at the highest level was obvious to us all. Yorkshire wicketkeeper/batsman Gerard Brophy was our next guest and due to a double booking by Abbeydale Sports Club we were obliged to hold our meeting downstairs in a screened off area of the pavilion. This did not detract from a very enthusiastic presentation from next year’s Yorkshire Beneficiary. He spoke of his enthusiasm to compete for the No 1 wicket keeping spot but also recognised that Yorkshire had some developing talent for the place in Jonny Bairstow. Gerard was accompanied for the evening by two of his Benefit Committee Members, Dave Callaghan and Steven Mann and we wished them every success for next season. An excellent evening enjoyed by all. Lancashire Chief Executive Jim Cumbes was our guest speaker. Jim was one of the last of an elite group of sportsmen who played both football and cricket at the highest level. We heard of his football career in which he played in goal for Aston Villa, Tranmere Rovers, West Bromwich Albion and Coventry. His cricket career which spanned 15 years was also a well travelled one. Starting with Lancashire, a brief spell at Surrey, then back to Lancashire before finally finishing in 1982 with a season at Warwickshire. He outlined his progress to the current role at Lancashire and brought us right up to date on the current problems they were facing at Old Trafford to get the planned redevelopment work moving, in fact the process was subject to a judicial review the week following his visit to us. (NB we later heard that the Judicial Review had favoured Lancashire CCC and the redevelopment work would result in Lancashire playing County Championship cricket away from Old Trafford in 2011 ) The Indoor Season... ...continued Sheffield Cricket Lovers’ Society