Sheffield Cricket Lovers' Society Year Book 2015

16 Sheffield Cricket Lovers’ Society twitter: @scloverssociety The Indoor Season... ...continued from page 13 Wednesday 5th March Our very own Quiz evening again hosted by Richard Scholey ably assisted by Ian Wyleman. The evening was well supported and the eight teams were really quite well matched. After eight rounds it was pleasing to note that only 13 points separated the winning team ( Led by the question master’s brother??) Thursday 20th March A review of the Sporting Year hosted by Robert Jackson with Panellists Kevin Howells of the BBC and Les Payne of the Sheffield Star. Kevin reviewed England’s performance in Australia and the West Indies He realised that most people were surprised at England’s lack lustre performance in Australia and expressed his view that Cook did not want KP in his side. Kevin felt that the split coaching role adopted by England created problems and hoped that they would revert to the one Coach for all forms of the game in future. He expects that there will be some significant changes for the 2014 season and hoped that Joe Root would be given a more settled position in the middle order with Sam Robson of Middlesex opening with Cook. Kevin concluded by congratulating Durham as worthy winners of the Championship, commiserating with Derbyshire but sad to see the sacking of Karl Krikken. He expected Yorkshire to do well in all forms of the game and looked forward in particular to seeing Gary Ballance continuing to develop his game even further. Les Payne was in fine form outlining the early years of his career with the Rotherham Reporter mainly as a Football reporter but as a Junior member of staff having to cover local news and the Courts as well. He recalled his days travelling on the Rotherham United team bus and getting to know the local team Managers, Tommy Dockerty, Ian Porterfield and of course Emlyn Hughes. He also covered the European Cup Finals in Milan in 1970 and in Rome in 1977. He joined the Sheffield Star in 1989 mainly covering Rotherham United but enjoying the odd game with Wednesday and United. He told us that he had visited every Football League ground covering many thousands of miles, this gave him the opportunity to tell us that his most frightening journey ever was when he was driven back to Sheffield from Wrexham at 90mph by tonight’s host, Robert Jackson. After a lively Question and Answer session the Society were delighted to present Les, who has announced his retirement, with a momento in appreciation of the support he has given the Society over many years. Report by Peter Mason, Vice Chairman Thursday 3rd April What a delight to welcome a real gentleman of cricket. M J K Smith, former Warwickshire and England batsman and captain of England in 25 of his 50 Tests. He also played one game for England at Rugby Union becoming probably the last double international when he played against Wales in 1956 Mike was accompanied by cricketing author, Douglas Miller who had persuaded Mike to become his 30th subject for a biography. Continued on page 24