An inspiration

The ever wonderful Abbi Aitken-Drummond tweeted the other day to ask a simple question, 'Who inspired your love for cricket?'

It is easy for Fantasy Bob to answer that question - it was his father, for reasons that need not be explored here, known to all as Pater.  Pater passed away last June at the excellent age of 95, but the last time FB visited him he asked, as he always did, how FB's cricket had gone the day before.  FB had to confess, sadly, that his team had lost, but that he had won the toss.  Unimpressed, Pater took due note. 'Any wickets?'  'Didn't bowl.'  For Pater and FB this was counted as a long conversation.  There was no point lengthening it.  FB's father knew better than to ask about runs.

It was Pater who stimulated FB's interest from the earliest age - see the photo above. This is FB aged 4 facing up to Pater's extreme pace, which he obviously delivered while balancing the box brownie.  Behind the stumps is FB's elder sister (elder of 2 sisters that is, not elder than FB) whose career as a keeper never quite took off from this high point.  Stumps with bails at age 4!  It is all you need to know.

Now Pater was a diarist - not in the Pepys' class, but for many years he kept a meticulous record of every day's doings in tiny pocket diaries in precise handwriting. Cricket features from time to time.  In some years he regularly notes the close of play Test score.  One year he records dashing to the Oval to watch the Australians while on holiday in London.

But 1955 sees something else.  The diary reports that he has taken the game up again after a number of years absence.  Why, is never revealed.  Turning out for Aberdeen Grammar School FPs, he records the fixtures, and his own contribution to proceedings.

April 23 - FPs 85-0]  School 84ao.  Very slow scoring for school until the last two or three.
April 30 - FPs  102  Turriff 89.  I scored nil being bowled first ball!!!
May 5 Nets in evening - had an innings - bat has good spring in it
May 7 FPs 81-1  YMCA 75 ao Bought pair of batting gloves.  Did not bat.  Umpired.  Quite pleasant fielding though enemy batting was very slow.
May 21 - Gordonians 132-5  FPs 68ao I scored 4 - runout as other batsman did not move.
May 28 - Lads Club 76 FPs 79-3 Did not bat no need to.
June 11 - YMCA 61 FPs 56 I scored 2 not out
June 18 - Anchorians 84  FPs 85-9  Self 2.  Received ball in inside of right leg.  Huge lump.
June 25 - Hendersons 126 FPs 48-4 Draw. Leg not well due to lump received last Sat.  Did not bat.
June 30 - Did not go to nets.  The garden needed doing.
July 5 - Bankers 105-7 Insurance 107-1 Self 4.  Received knock on leg.
July 23 - Westburn 164-8 FPs 111-4 Draw
July 28 - FPs 152-9 Rubislaw Church 152-9  Did not bat for latter.

And that is the end of an obviously brilliant career on the field.  A level of achievement which FB has struggled to match. Whether he was not selected again, or chose not to make himself available under domestic pressure, or found the lump on his leg became a season ending impediment is not revealed.  But that was the end of active cricket.  After a few years, Pater took up bowling and played obsessively until well into his 90s.  From an active cricketer - of a sort - he became a passive interested supporter.  And FB was with him on every step of that journey.

All through FB's childhood there was cricket.  Pater's kit lay unused in the dressing-up box, the  gloves referred to above, rubber-spiked objects of mystery.  On summer Saturday afternoons FB and sister would be taken to Mannofield, the home of Aberdeenshire.  FB may have absorbed even then some of the subtle intricacies of the game, although his memories are more of getting skelfs from the wooden bleachers in tender parts of his young anatomy.  There was also the excitement of tea which was sumptuous as might be expected in the baking capital of the world.  FB's love of cricket tea had an identifiable and early origin.

Cricket books were prominent in the book shelves and FB leafed through many, fascinated by the photos of distant sunlit grounds.  On the numerous rainy days during childhood caravan holidays, they would play rainy day cricket, keeping meticulous scores.  But best of all, during the summer Test series FB and Pater would be home for lunch and catch the end of the morning's play on the TV.  They would be indulged and allowed to eat their lunch off their laps.  That is how important cricket was.

FB can still see those black and white figures performing their great deeds.  Trueman, Lock, May, Dexter....and many more.  The privilege of free to view TV ball by ball coverage was an important adjunct to Pater's interest.

Having moved to Linlithgow on retirement, Pater was also  a member for many years at West Lothian (now Linlithgow) CC and would wander to the the ground every other Saturday to watch and share a quiet drink.  Cricket was a habit, deeply ingrained and it rubbed off on FB.

Pater might seem an unlikely inspiration, but there are many forms that inspiration can take. FB is forever thankful to Pater for passing on this great love.  Sadly missed.