McGrath Scores Big Without My Assistance!

It was good to see my old mucker Anthony McGrath scoring a quality, unbeaten ton yesterday for Yorkshire with an innings described in today's media as one of his best ever. The former England batsman and White Rose captain has been a class player for many years, perhaps only lacking the temperament to break through into consistent appearances at international level. Nine years' ago he and I were involved in a batting partnership of 88 when I joined him at the crease for Yorkshire on tour in South Africa. We were playing Boland in Hermanus and the Yorkshire captain, David Byas, played me at number four in the batting line up. Over the next hour I played and missed and occasionally nudged or nurdled a single or a two, whilst "Maggsy" smacked the ball to all parts of the boundary. Eventually, realising that there were significantly better batsmen than me waiting in the hutch, I swung and missed at a straight ball and left the field raising my bat, perhaps the only batsmen in first-class history to wave his bat after scoring just 14. That's right, out of 88 between us, McGrath scored 74! As social secretary he later fined me for being a slow scorer, having fined me earlier for arriving on tour late (even though this was orgnaised by Yorkshire CCC), and awarded me with "the shirt" for the night, which meant wearing a horrendous Hawaii-style shirt, plus swimming goggles, for a night out in Cape Town. The previous wearer was a certain Michael Lumb, who played his part nine years on with England winning the twenty20 World Cup. I would have liked to have been a full-time cricketer. It's better than growing up!