The Twelfth Man 2013

32 David talked about his present involvement in the benefit of Steven Peters, with lots of exciting events arranged. The Question and Answer was lively as usual covering amongst others, South African players, agents, the state of world cricket and Yorkshire and England prospects. 24 January – Young Yorkshire evening Our Chairman introduced Yorkshire Academy Coach Richard Damms along with his young future stars — Barney Gibson, Nathan Firn and Alex Leyshon. Richard started his full-time duties as Academy Coach at the beginning of November last year together with new first team coach Jason Gillespie. Richard introduced his young guests and then gave us an overview of the past season and present status of the Academy and also its prospects for 2013. The dream being to win the Championship in our 150th Anniversary year and, ambitious as that might seem, it has to be said there is a lot of talent coming through and there is no shortage of optimism. The young guests were asked by our Chairman, James, what their thoughts and aspirations were for 2013. Alex said that he is looking forward to bowling with the Academy and bowl well enough to force his way into the Second team. Nathan replied that he is recovering from a back injury and simply wants to return to full fitness and speed to progress through the season. Barney said that after his debut with the first team he has been playing with Pudsey Congs and is working very hard on his batting because as we all know, in the modern game a stumper has to bat well. The Q and A session proved very interesting and amongst subjects discussed were injuries to modern fast bowlers, umpiring and discipline, how to get started in the game and the Boycott Day which included a tour of the museum and a social evening. 14 February – David Allen Our Chairman introduced Hampshire historian and writer David Allen who had made the long journey from the South (in not the best of weather) to join us. David had an amazing collection of exhibits to show us and was also extremely knowledgeable, not just on Hampshire cricket, but also Yorkshire and indeed all cricket! David took us back to the very beginning of the game by mentioning that the Hambledon Club of Hampshire beat England by an innings in 1777: quite a change to the modern day when no Hampshire player played for England during the 20th century. David continued to amaze us with his knowledge of the history of the game and went on to talk us through the many exhibits he had brought with him. The Q and A session proved particularly entertaining with a superb pen-picture of Colin Ingleby-Mackenzie and many other captains and stalwarts of the Hampshire game. 21 February – David Warner Jim introduced our guest speaker, David Warner, journalist and author of many notable cricket books. Before we commenced our normal evening David was asked to present the 2012 J.M.Kilburn Cricket Writer of the Year Award to Dr Peter Davies. Peter is a cherished member our cricket community, a history scholar with a fine academic background and now lecturer in French and European History. In 2004 he received an award of £50,000 from the Heritage Lottery Fund to research the social history of cricket in Calderdale and Kirklees and, despite ill health in recent years, he continues to produce cricket literature. Full details of Peter’s projects and publications can be found on www.ckcricketheritage.org.uk . Jim commenced his introduction by paying tribute to Anthony McGrath who recently announced his retirement. David, or ‘Plum’, then went on to discuss Yorkshire’s prospects for 2013 and also his own background, having Wombwell’s John Ambler (centre) with our guests at the Young Yorkshire evening