Sheffield Cricket Lovers' Society Year Book 2015

12 Sheffield Cricket Lovers’ Society Photos courtesy SWPIX twitter: @scloverssociety The Indoor Season... Using footage featuring Mervyn Westfield, a recently convicted Essex Player, they showed a video - made with the full co-operation of Mervyn - which will be shown to all players in the future to demonstrate the intention of the ECB to stamp out any future acts of corruption. It was fascinating to learn that the 8 second delay which exists between the real on field action and the TV broadcast from Sky satellite transmissions provides a real opportunity for the less scrupulous to place bets on what happens in the next delivery! They made it quite clear that they were not a covert operation and their small team would be seen at as many matches as possible. We were the first Group to see the video but they assured us that it would be seen by every first class player in the coming season. A fascinating evening, we wished them well in their work with the ECB to stamp out any form of corruption in our game. Monday 2 December - Cally Barlow A very warm welcome to Cally Barlow, wife of the late Eddie Barlow the former South African and Derbyshire player. In a well prepared presentation Cally recalled many anecdotes of Eddie’s early career which she had not shared - they were not married until Eddie retired from playing to take up Coaching roles. Nevertheless she gave many examples of his determination to succeed despite not enjoying good eyesight! He first realised that his eyesight was less than perfect when he ran his bike into the local police, both on his way to school and on the way home. Cally spoke of his various coaching roles which continued even after suffering a stroke whist coaching Bangladesh. Thereafter he coached using a wheelchair provided for him by the PCA. His last coaching role was in North Wales where he looked after the NE Wales Development Squads. Eddie died of a brain haemorrhage in Jersey in December 2005 leaving Cally a widow. Cally told us she was hoping to raise money from her talks to repay the PCA for funding his wheelchair. An excellent evening’s entertainment by a very enthusiastic lady. 2014 - 13th January What a great pleasure to welcome back Joe Sayers, former Yorkshire batsman. who announced his retirement from cricket only a week ago. Joe outlined his decision to retire having seen that it was unlikely he would recover his place in the First X1 and did not feel that he wanted to move elsewhere. With a good University degree he felt it opportune to seek a career and had been able to secure a job in The City of London. He had also recently completed his first book “Rose- tinted Summer” and was taking the opportunity to market the book prior to taking up his new job in the City. The book, chronicling tales from the Yorkshire dressing room during the 2011 season, will be yet another to add to the ever expanding collection of books by ex Yorkshire Players. Joe was clearly a little sad that he had felt it appropriate to retire but it was also clear that he has the aptitude to achieve success outside cricket and we all wished him well for the future. ...continued from page 7