LCS Meeting Thursday 23rd February Alan Fordham ECB Operations Manager Our second guest speaker for February 100 brave souls fought storm DORIS, and made their way to Grace Road on Thursday night to listen to a very frank and open Alan Fordham, talking about his mental battles towards the end of his batting career. Howard formally introducing Alan to the audience. Alan looks impressed with his stats. It had been 10 years since Alan’s last visit to our society in 2007 In his introduction, Howard, said that Alan had had a 10 year career with Northamptonshire CCC, for most of that time as an opening bat. Alan moved into the administration of the game, and is now the ECB operations manager, working from Lords, so his office is in a nice setting for anyone interested in cricket. Alan oversees the organisation of the county cricket fixture list, which means in total something like 400 fixtures, looks after the four Pitch Liaison officers and was the guy who set out the rules for the running of the first ever 20/Twenty cup. Alan preparing his talk Alan started by saying that he was glad it had been 10 years since his last visit, as he could just give the same talk again, and no one would remember. The first line of his talk was, this was the largest crowd he had seen at Grace Road, and then said, I suppose that’s not the first time you’ve heard that said before. He went on to say there would be no more jokes. Alan had a really easy relaxed style to his talk Alan started his talk properly by telling us the he was extremely lucky in his early cricketing years. He went to Bedford school, which as a great tradition of producing good cricketers, Alistair Cook, is also an old boy. There is also a link with our last speaker, Derek Randall, was cricket master at Bedford school. Alan told us that at the time he was at Bedford, the cricket master was a guy called, Andy Curtiss, Alan said that Andy had invested a great deal of his time and effort into Alan’s development. Alan told us that after Andy had left Bedford school, he had gone onto get probably the best job ever as, Master of Golf, at Millfield School. Storm Doris cut into the number of people at this meeting Nice to see Peter Booth, who was one of our guests at the 1975 reunion meeting in 2015. The time just seems to fly by. Many thanks to David Osbourne, who was kind enough to do the driving, after I twisted my ankle Alan telling us about how he started in professional cricket Alan went on to say about how he got to play for Northants; Andy Curtiss encouraged him to play in a higher quality league, firstly for Bedford Town then for Bedfordshire. Alan told us that whilst playing a match between, Bedford town and Wolverton. He was approached by Brian Reynolds, representing Northamptonshire County Cricket Club, and asked to play a season for the county before Alan went to university. Alan talked about the amount of modern cricketers who now go through a university system. He said that he went to university from 1984 to 1987, at that time; Northants CCC had a squad of around 25 players, with maybe 2 or 3 going to university. Alan then told us, that there are now 400 players registered to play 1st class cricket, of that number 20% will have been to one of the six MCC accredited universities. Angie and Jean, had a fantastic night manning the book stall, they took an amazing £26, taking into account the numbers attending this meeting that was a great result. They want to sell most of the books at the Paul Allott meeting on the 9th March, so the stock can be stored more easily over the summer, Angie and Jean will again be serving on the stall, so do buy lots. Everyone listening intently to Alan talking about the latter years of his career and the problems he had Alan said he had made his first class debut in 1986 against the New Zealand touring team of that summer. He said in his early years as a professional, he couldn’t wait to play the next game, he wanted to challenge himself against the very best cricketer’s he could. Alan’s county championship debut came a few weeks later, at Trent Bridge. Alan told us he never scored a run as he was hit on the cheek from a bouncer bowled by Clive Rice. He was taken to the Queen Elizabeth hospital, and he had an x-ray on his cheek, fortunately nothing was broken. Alan told us about this event, and then went on to tell us about the modern helmets players wear today, and how much the ECB thinks about the safety of players. as your able to see a lot of familiar faces were missing Alan told us that his first full season came in 1988, in his third match of the season he scored 100 at the Oval. He said that the next few years were the best, he wanted nothing more than to play cricket for his county and maybe England if he ever got the chance. Alan said he had 4 great years from 1990 to 1993 in 1994 Alan had appendicitis and hardly played during the season. Alan then went on to talk very openly and honestly about the mental problems he faced every time he went out to bat. He told us that the seasons 95/ 96/ 97 were very hard, by then Alan said, he knew he would never play for England, he wasn’t going to captain the team, and every day was a grind. He thought every ball was going to get him out or that every bouncer was going to hit him. Alan said that his career ended in 1997, and until then, he had never spoken about how he felt to anyone. He told us that when his playing days were over, he spoke with one of his old team mates, about how he felt, asking his friend, did you feel like that, his friend said that every day when playing cricket he felt exactly the same. Everyone listening intently to Alan talking about his battles with the problems he had for the last 4 seasons towards the end of his career I think our members should be made aware that Alan took no fee for speaking to us on Thursday night. We asked Alan if the society could make a donation to a charity of his choice. Alan chose the Professional Cricketers Association; this organisation looks after cricketers if or when they have problems. It’s the PCA’s 50th Anniversary this year On behalf of all the LCS members; Robin will send a cheque for £100 to the PCA My thanks to Janet and Phil and Rosemary for their help with the raffle, again you all supported the society to the tune of £80, which now amounts to a running total of £594. Our next meeting is on Thursday 9th March; when ex England & Lanc’s CCC fast bowler, now SKY TV commentator and cricket pundit, Paul Allott will be our guest speaker. Please tell everyone you think might be interested, we are hoping to have another turn out of around 200 people at this meeting. Phil Veasey On behalf of the LCS committee .