The Twelfth Man 2020

James Greenfield introduced Brian to a brisk afternoon Holiday Inn crowd as follows:- Brian Charles Rose is an English former cricketer, who played in nine Tests and two ODIs for England from 1977 to 1981. Rose was educated at Weston-super-Mare Grammar School and trained as a teacher before pursuing a successful county career with Somerset. A left-handed opening batsman, he succeeded Brian Close as captain in 1978, and led the county to their first-ever trophies, the Gillette Cup and the John Player League, in 1979. The team was a potent blend of world class match winners in Ian Botham, Viv Richards, and Joel Garner, county professionals and keen youngsters. Helped perhaps by Ian Bothams’ captaincy of England, Rose played 9 Tests and batted as well as anyone against the fear- some West Indies attack in 1980, making 243 runs at 48.60. He developed eye problems, had to return early and batted with glasses for the rest of his career. In 270 first-class matches he scored 13,236 runs at 33.25 with a career best of 205. He resumed teaching after retiring from the first-class game but maintained his involvement with Somerset. A past Chairman of Cricket, he became the Director of Cricket at Taunton, but stood down at the end of the 2012 season, later becoming President of the county club. Brian treated us to a full background story of his career from early days to retirement. A fascinating insight it was too, with lots of stories and anecdotes and some wonderful memo- ries. One story from his rich memory bank involved playing a Sunday League match at Scarborough when he hit a six which unfortunately hit a lady on the brass-band side of the ground. Her husband was quoted as saying in true Yorkie fashion, ‘she should’a bin watching t’cricket not t’bloody band !!’ The Q&A went well into overtime, covering all aspects of the game past and present to conclude a highly successful afternoon. Chairman James introduced ex-England stalwart Derek Ray- mond Pringle to a packed afternoon audience at the Barnsley Holiday Inn. Derek is a former Test and One Day International, player and is now a cricket journalist. Educated at St. Mary’s School (Nairobi), Felsted School and Fitzwilliam College, Cam- bridge, Derek played for Essex between 1978 and 1993. He was a member of the successful sides of the eighties and early nine- ties alongside cricketers such as Graham Gooch, Mark Waugh, Nasser Hussain, John Lever and Neil Foster, which in that period won the County Championship six times. As an undergraduate, Pringle played for Cambridge University and in 1982, while captain of the University side he was selected for England. Derek went on to play 30 Tests, the last of which was in 1992, scoring 695 runs and taking 70 wickets. He also played in 44 One Day Internationals between 1982 and 1993. He took part in two World Cups and was a member of England’s 1992 World Cup final team. After his playing days Derek became a cricket correspondent, firstly with The Independent and then with The Daily Telegraph . He has eclectic tastes in fashion and music and his interests include archaeology, photography, writing, real ale and more obscure musical trends, and he was an extra in the film Chariots of Fire . Derek was a technical advisor to the Oman cricket team in 2015, helping them qualify for their first ever World-T20 Tour- nament the following year. After the introduction Derek went on to give us a very entertain- ing slide show from his playing days. Each photo had a story and it became a ‘Who’s Who’ of cricket through the 1980s, the many stories involving the ‘usual suspects’ proving to be amus- ing and very entertaining for the audience. There was even a story about an invitation for the England squad to tea at Buck- ingham Palace. The Q&A session covered many subjects which were met with an impressively frank response, to conclude a first-class afternoon. 38 39 DEREK PRINGLE 10 February 2020 BRIAN ROSE 24 February 2020 Derek Pringle (L) with Dave Whittingham Jack Tunnicliffe (L) with Brian Rose