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Richard 'Dog' Lawrence - playing Cricket in Ireland |
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Written by Site Admin
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Tuesday, 18 July 2006 |
Richard 'Dog' Lawrence has been playing Cricket in Ireland Read more below.
Ever since the sport began Arundel Castle has been graced by the greats of the cricketing world and now you can add the slightly less well-known name of Andrew Douglas to that list.
The Harvey's Cornwall and Hawke's Bay medium-pacer is in England, playing for Enfield in the Fuller's Middlesex Premier League, where he's quickly caught the eye of a former England captain.
"One of the guys in our side is the son of Mike Gatting and Mike's been good enough to invite us along for a few of his games," Douglas said.
"I've played against a few old hands, although I'm not sure exactly who they were, and I also got to play at the famous Arundel Castle for the Duke of Norfolk's XI against Cambridge University.
Mike's even had me net-bowling to a few of the Middlesex first and second XI players, which has been a good opportunity to measure myself."
Douglas didn't elaborate on his performance at Arundel and a quick trawl through the internet, perhaps, explains why. Batting in the lofty spot of seven, Douglas was out for nought, before going wicketless in his 10 overs as Cambridge won by eight wickets.
"I've played about a dozen of those invitation matches, plus nine league games, six more in the Middlesex and Essex Cup and six Twenty20's. That's a lot of cricket, but I've enjoyed every minute of it," he said.
"I found the early season wickets a real eye-opener, because you could put as much effort in as you liked, but no balls would bounce over knee height. There's been a bit more pace and bounce lately, but the odd one still keeps pretty low."
Clubmates Tom McNaughton and Richard Lawrence are also strutting their stuff in the UK, in Durham and Ireland, respectively.
"The standard here is probably better than seniors and very close to prems," said McNaughton.
"The wickets are a lot slower, so I've had to pitch the ball up more, but I got a five-wicket bag in my third game, which boosted my confidence a lot. It's been great to get into a new environment and be playing the game and I love and be able to pass on a bit of knowledge."
Lawrence, a former Central Districts A opener, has had a fairly lean time of it on the park, but useful success with his little right-arm skidders.
"There haven't been too many runs and it's starting to get to the point of embarrassing, actually," he said.
"I can't buy a run, but I'm probably the team's top wicket-taker with eight. We never seem to get teams more than three down and of our eight games, I think we've won one."
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