Sheffield Cricket Lovers' Society Year Book 2013

6 Sheffield Cricket Lovers’ Society Once again we were delighted to welcome Dave Callaghan to get our season underway. Members will recall that in his previous visit to us, Dave predicted a good season for Yorkshire and that England would retain the Ashes on the basis of a 2-2 draw in the series. Dealing with Yorkshire first, Dave was quite frank and stated that they deserved to be relegated. He felt that the loss of Jaques Rudolph proved to be significant and with quite a number of players failing to reach their potential it came as no great surprise to him that they failed to retain their spot in Division 1. Dave did not mention the England team performance versus his prediction last year… obviously an oversight! He gave a quick review on the progress of some of the younger Yorkshire players and felt that there was the potential for a quick return to Division 1. In particular he predicted good contributions from Jonny Bairstow and Joe Root. Once again a very enjoyable and informative presentation by David. 10th October 2011 It was a great delight to welcome former Leicestershire, Northampton and England player Nick Cook . Nick is now on the First Class Umpires list and obviously enjoying his continuing involvement in cricket. Nick told of his England debut, being drafted into the side at short notice after Phil Edmonds hurt his back getting out of his car! Having no time to feel nervous Nick had a dream debut taking 5-35 in the New Zealand first innings. He went on to play a further 14 Test Matches. His appointment to the First Class Umpires Panel gave Nick an opportunity to stay active in the game he so clearly enjoys and we were entertained by some very interesting views on the current County sides. Another excellent evening ended with his forthright handling of some very interesting questions from our members. 19th October 2011 A double bill of fare this evening when we welcomed two former Nottinghamshire players to Sheffield Cricket Lovers’. Mike Smedley , another Yorkshire born player, and Bill Taylor , a Lancastrian, were colleagues at Notts during the 1970’s. As the senior player Mike had 360 First-class and 206 A List games to his credit whilst his “younger “ friend played 95 first class and 122 List A games. They took it in turns to relate some very amusing stories of their times together and it was great to see that they were still such good friends despite having both retired in the late 1970’s. Another superb evening in the company of two cricketing gentlemen. The Indoor Season... Bev Stokes, Chairman