Is it still possible to be a 'One Club Man'?

With football dominant in the British media, June and July always prove to be challenging months for the national broadcast and print journalists as they have to actually look beyond ‘our national game’ for stories to fill their papers. Yet despite this, it is still difficult for cricket or any other sport to knock a football story off the back page, even when an Aussie opening batsman is throwing out punches in Birmingham bars.

June and July are very much the month of the big summer transfer, and whether it be Gareth Bale, Cristiano Ronaldo, Wayne Rooney or Jose Mourinho, the papers are full of speculation of who is moving and where they are going to. For football, the summer transfer has long been the norm, as players look for pastures new and managers and coaches try to bolster squads.

Growing up in Lancashire and playing in the Northern Cricket League, transfers between clubs were very rare. You very much played for your local club, and once you had done so, you didn’t play anywhere else. Of course there were people who moved in and out of the area, so teams were renewed, and the odd person did move between clubs, but it was quite controversial when people did.

Having lived and played in the East Midlands now for nine years, I have been amazed at how easily people move between clubs within the same league, particularly in Nottinghamshire. This is no doubt partly down to the geographical tight nature of the league (the Northern League was stretched over a much larger distance and so swapping clubs was always harder), but as Jon Terry said to me during the week, it is almost as though the era of the ‘one club man’ is over.

I was very lucky to have been brought up playing cricket at Lancaster. A club steeped in history, it was great to come through the ranks from 4^th team to the 1^st team, and during that process, play alongside many senior players who previously been first team stalwarts. I can still remember playing in the fourth team with former first team legend Rodney Webb at Ripley St Thomas School at the age of 12, then with my dad in the second team before making the breakthrough into the first team. The role of the senior players in the club was not only to play at the highest standard for themselves, but also to put something back into the club when it was time for them to move aside. They did this by taking on roles as senior players in the second and third teams, adding that competitive drive, but also the experience and advice that young players could learn from.


In my early days I played for Lancaster 4th XI at Ripley St Thomas School



In recent weeks we have seen a number of mid-season transfers within the league, as players try to better the standard of cricket that they are playing. I would never begrudge anyone wanting to play at the highest standard they can. However, it is important that players remember their roots, and when the time comes, return to take on that development role that is so crucial in bringing through the next generation. I for one, would be more than happy to be back playing at Ripley St Thomas or Basil Russell one day, knowing I have had a hand in developing a future Premier League star.