Sheffield Cricket Lovers' Society Year Book 2013

9 Sheffield Cricket Lovers’ Society Our Autumn dinner was held as a tribute to the England selectors. Geoff Miller, Ashley Giles and James Whitaker being our principal guests. Welcoming them to the evening our Chairman said that the committee felt it appropriate to recognise the significant improvement in the England performances and it was only fair that the selectors should be thanked for their contribution. Geoff Miller , responded on behalf of the selectors following which a Question and Answer session by them was well received. After dinner entertainment was provided by comedian Mike Kelly. Once again members and guests enjoyed a first class meal, and our thanks to Secretary David Drabble and Chef Patron David Baldwin of the Omega for a superb event. 23 November Award winning Author Ashley Mote was our next speaker. Ashley, Cricket Historian and former European MP, has researched the early days of cricket and recently written “The Glory Days of Cricket” the amazing story of Broadhalfpenny Down. His stories of challenge matches for high stakes, the preparation of ground and pitches and the eventual development of the first Laws of Cricket provided an excellent evenings entertainment. 5th December Our scheduled speaker Jack Birkenshaw was unable to be with us this evening. We were delighted to learn that he had been awarded the MBE for services to cricket and he has promised to join us in early 2012. Secretary David Drabble persuaded Frank Duckworth to visit us again to update us on any changes to the Duckworth -Lewis system. Frank arrived with a superb Slide presentation which we were able to show using the Society’s newly acquired projector! It proved again to be a fascinating evening and no doubt many of our members will now be able to do their own calculations whilst watching a rain affected match. It was also nice to learn that both Frank and Tony Lewis had also been awarded the MBE for services to cricket. 12th January 2012 We started our 2012 meetings with a visit from former Yorkshire, Gloucestershire and currently with Somerset, Bowler Steve Kirby . Steve told us of his early days with Leicestershire where he played 2nd XI cricket whilst still pursuing his day job selling Industrial Flooring. With no first class game at Leicester Steve was delighted to be invited to Yorkshire in 2001. A very competitive cricketer Steve was understandably thrilled to take seven wickets on his debut for Yorkshire, but even more excited to record match figures of 12 for 72 against his former club Leicestershire. Continued on page 24