My 20 Years of Sport: 2018 - "What a Season"

By Nick Powell

Over the course of the next month and a half, in anticipation of my 20^th birthday and acceptance that professional sport is well and truly beyond me, I’m looking back through my 20 years to find the sporting memories that have had the biggest impact on me.

We start in 2018, and without doubt the greatest season I’ve ever been a part of at any sports club, and that was the Surrey Championship treble winning season at Dean Road…

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2018: “What a Season”

I was put on this earth to watch, not play, cricket.

When I first started, I was one of the few seven year olds in my team that could bowl overarm. Nevertheless my accuracy was duly matched, and overtaken, and my one appearance for my Prep School 1^st XI came as a No.11 who didn’t bowl.

I gave it another go in U15s, now as a ‘specialist batsmen and part-time leggy’, but failing to reach double figures all season and a brutal day in the nets resulted in my chucking the towel in again.

 It was in that fateful season that I made my debut for the Old Hamptonians Cricket Club. At the time, their 3^rd XI had just seven players that day and my good friend James “Ozzy” Osborne rang me up.

“Fancy playing?”

“I’m really not sure mate.”

“Oh go on, it’ll be fun! Besides, you won’t need to bowl and you’d be doing me a massive favour regardless of how it goes.”

“Alright then! Let’s go for it!”

Me and Ozzy's first day of sixth form, a distinctly happier day than my king pair shame

8 hours later, in stained whites, I glumly sat on my lawn wondering what an earth had happened. Having missed a family event, I’d been out for a golden duck (bowled) TWICE, as I’d been allowed to return to the crease later in the match due to our player shortage.

The tea was belting though.

Fast forward four years and although I’ve had some (slightly) more successful appearances for “the OH”, I am pretty content with playing a less involved role this year.

I offer to play the role of scorer. The person who sits on the edge of the boundary and counts everything.

With just minutes to go before game on, I arrive at Dean Road for the first match of the season. I’ve been reliably informed that the 1s should go up, the 2s could go up, and the 3s probably won’t go up.

But I would be covering the 1s, and what a baptism of fire it was.

My opposite number, Debbie, had over 30 years’ experience, was Surrey CCC 2s scorer and had a knowledge of the art of scoring that left me bewildered.

Had it not been for her, I’d have suffered, but after her words of wisdom (and a few from 4^th XI skipper Michael Godsmark) I slowly gained some confidence.

On the pitch, it was a different story.

Jacob Doherty (JDo) is one of the keenest, most enthusiastic and inclusive people I’ve ever met, and he was determined to get me involved on the pitch as much as possible.

JDo's tireless work helped keep things ticking over for all the teams (4s included!) and he was deservedly rewarded with Clubman of the Year, received from 1s Captain Rich Brown

Having watched the guys play, I was desperate to play with the correct technique and try to play properly.

This, and weak hand eye coordination, contributed to my first six scores with the bat being: 0, 1, 0, 0, 1, and 0, I never bowled and only took the gloves on one occasion. It was demoralising, but in the background, something much more significant was happening.

I am a quitter, and usually after a streak like that I would give up, but I couldn’t stop myself going back every weekend. I quickly found I no longer cared about me, because I was a part (albeit a very small one) of something special.

JDo was the keenest of them all, but he epitomised the nature of this club. Everyone cared about everyone, people wanted to help each other whether it was on the pitch or anything else.

A typical scene at Dean Road after another win for the Second Team

 People took it in turns to provide laptops for live sport viewing, cooking services and ingredients, doing the washing up and scoring games when they were injured for free.

The beer, and cider, flowed, at no point did the atmosphere feel fake whatsoever. Perhaps that was because of the staggering form of all three teams.

The 1s and 2s came bursting out the blocks, the former wrapping up the title in just fourteen of the eighteen rounds, the latter losing just one game (when I was at the scorebook), but their achievements seemed like nothing when compared to third team.

Second team batsmen Ollie George hit two centuries in his first three League games in a stunning start for JDo's team

The dominant 1s were a joy to watch and had a superb team

The 3s, in their first season of League cricket, didn’t give themselves a hope, and after consecutive agonising 3 and 1 run defeats, I certainly didn’t.

But the momentum of the club spurred them on. Despite needing to finish top to be promoted and games running out, they kept winning game after game and duly joined their fellow club teams in being able to celebrate promotion.

It was a truly amazing achievement for them, and showed that a club where everyone cares about and supports each other can do extraordinary things.

I’ve missed out so many of the laughs, the songs, and the memories of the season but will add a quick personal touch to conclude.

Never have I contributed so little to a club, and yet felt so valued. I was scoring lots of games, but the club could easily have just paid the fine they would have owed rather than paying and lumping me around everywhere. Eventually I scored some runs but they were all in the meaningless games, by the time we were no longer playing in cup competitions.

There was nothing insincere about the way I was thanked, it was never about ticking a box, making sure I was happy, it was because people genuinely cared, and looked out for each other.

In all the sporting victories that teams I’ve followed and been involved in have had (many will feature in this series), few make me look back as fondly as this one.

And, despite what some people think of this club, it couldn’t have happened to a nicer set of blokes.

The 3s promotion seemed like the natural climax to a fantastic season