fredfertang
Cricket Web: All-Time Legend
I think I was 8, possibly 9 – went along to a benefit match at Lytham CC where the club were playing a Lancashire XI – the idea for all the small boys was to get a full set of signatures for the Lancashire side on the scorecard you had to buy to get in. Some of the players were fine, I remember Peter Lever, David Hughes and Farokh Engineer in particular being happy to sign and humour our silly schoolboy questions like "Would you rather play for India or Lancashire Mr Engineer?" Clive Lloyd was slouched in an armchair outside the pavilion looking as miserable as sin, but once you plucked up the courage to ask him to sign he was fine (but no smiles or conversation) – Bumble and Barry Wood played games with us, trying to hide and then coming up with all sorts of reasons not to sign before finally breaking into huge smiles, ruffling your hair and signing. There was just one who was really quite unpleasant, who did actually sign mine because one of the others told him to, but I don’t think he signed many others – he was a second team batsman called Ed Slinger, who never made it as a cricketer, playing just once for Lancashire, but I never forgot his miserable scowling face – our paths never crossed again, much as I hoped they might – he was a solicitor who went on to become a Circuit Judge
As for the cricket that day – no idea, other than that I remember being hugely disappointed that Clive Lloyd didn’t hang around for long in the middle, and neither did Farokh Engineer
As for the cricket that day – no idea, other than that I remember being hugely disappointed that Clive Lloyd didn’t hang around for long in the middle, and neither did Farokh Engineer