As I am an old git I have been lucky enough to see some wonderful cricketers in the flesh.

Brian Close
D'olly
Colin Milburn
Sir Geoff
Derek Underwood
Botham
Sir Clive
Sir Viv
Holding, Roberts and Marshall
Lillee
Hadlee
Gavaskar
Aravinda da Silva (he was so small almost every ball was a bouncer!!!)
Beshin Bedi

And IMHO the greatest of them all Sir Garfield Sobers

never saw gary like


botham is a top bloke as is viv richards, my fav though is boycott, funny funny man



ill add to that list some aussies i met at hedingly a good while back

warne

waugh brothers


and the legends that are thompson, lillee and David boon

did you ever go to the piss up, i mean cricket when it used to be held in jesmond PA?



had some mammoth sessions in there

In the early 90s I used to fancy Peter Such. wonder what ever happend to him...

Aye one or two, but I have always been a Yorkshire fan, spent many happy hours on the Western Terrace over the years. have to say watching Merve the Swerve steaming down the hill at headingly was an impressive sight especially when there were 2 of him

He probably fled the country when he found out

went to headingly for years - the friday and saturday sessions


banter with the players on the boundary always cracked me up

Used to work with Both's little brother in the late 80's so been out on the piss with him a few times (and the rest of his Somerset mates ) absolutely top bloke, as were Sir Viv and Big Bird

Never miss a session of headingly tests and do a few county matches as well. I'll never forget the year they said you couldn't take drink in to the ground, so about 10,000 people immediately necked the contents of the coolboxes outside the ground and went inside to buy more, what a fucking mess

Viv Richards
Ian Botham
Shane Warne

Three of the greastest players ever and players who have decided so many matches.

Richards had panache and not for nothing was he nicknamed Master Blaster. And he didn't wear a helmet either.

Botham was deadly with bat and ball and Warne was one of those bowlers that opposition fans genuinely feared. You just knew a wicket was coming.

I doubt he would have cared much about a 13yo's crush somehow

joel garner

Always remember Sir Viv against Australia when they had just introduced the 2 bouncer rule, First up Lille bolwed him 2 bouncers which were dispatched with Vivs usual panache, Lillee steams in and bowls a third which clatters into the boundry same as the previous two had. The umpire then warns Dennis for "intimadatory bowling" and all you can hear is Sir Vivs melifluous tones from the other end of the pitch "let him bowl dem aal day" fecking marvellous.

Also when Parky asked him why he didn't wear a helmet he replied "cos I got a bat"

Love the bloke

was a pub ower the road, fairly busy it was when the cricket was on, but what a laugh

many a night slaughtered in there wondering how th efuck i was gonna get back to pudsey

was at that jesmond cricket thing the 1st year they got it going i believe was almost a wave of awe from the crowd when he came out to bat, im sure hr hit, 3*6's, 3*4's and three singles before being bowled by a top northumberland spinner


richards gave the bowler his bat and cap and as he steps back to the pavilion a heckler starts havin a go at him

"i cud have batted there all day mon, i jus need a bit of chillin time dont ya know"

I used to work about 5 minutes away from the ground and we had a fecking geet big yard, so everybody would leave their vans parked up at home for and we used to charge people to park in the yard for a fiver a day then drink the loot in the ground during the game and either The Original Oak and The Skyrack after stumps, Taxi up to Bryans for Fish and chips then somehow get back around to Moortown to annoy the fiuck out of psychobitchqueen from Hell at home

our paths seem to have crossed many times fella

ive prolly kicked the shite out of you

Sounds about right

Dean Jones was a canny laugh, played against him a few times when he was playing for Nostell (and getting batting coaching from Sir Geoff) he was always up for post match beers.

Martyn Moxon was a cock though, once had the pleasure of seeing him come out to bat for England with a black eye I'd inflicted a few days before in Barnsley

You were never sober long enough

Me must have met up at some time though, prolly in a gutter on the High street, or on Otley Road

then there was the great "english" hope, graham hick, such flair, such technique, oh fuck aldermans got him again

or the old chestnuts

"yee gorra spare tab mate"

"ill walk up with you"

Cue staggering up Salter Road

For me there is one player that stands out by a mile

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_E1nO_RigVE

LEGEND!!

only started liking crikcet before the 2005 ashes so my favourites have to be freddie + shane.

a taxi to bryans?? - you lazy get