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Peter Clark: impromptu coaching from Shane Warne

“The summer of 2005. I had recently turned 10 years old and had not given cricket much of a second thought other than having played a few games for my school team in Portsmouth, where I had developed a reputation as something of a slogger. I knew Australia were coming to England to contest the Ashes, but we hadn’t won the urn since eight years before I was born. Naturally, I didn’t fancy England’s chances, and Michael Vaughan’s men were duly beaten by 239 runs in the first Test at Lord’s.

“Needless to say, what followed was nothing less than a transformative experience for someone who now considers himself an absolute cricket nut!

“It was an opposition player who captured my imagination more than any of the England team, however. The following summer, I gelled up my bright blonde hair and started bowling leg breaks, turning the ball as much as I possibly could in an attempt to emulate my new hero Shane Warne.

“I had become pretty good, so much so that I started going up to Hampshire’s ground (then known as the Rose Bowl) for weekly coaching sessions with some of the guys from school. One day, as I’m walking back to my mark I suddenly notice that standing at the back of the indoor nets is my hero from the summer before, then the captain of Hampshire. Shane kindly stepped in to give me a couple of tips on how to grip the ball, and I will always remember it as the first occasion when I felt genuinely starstruck.”

Peter Clark, Communications Executive, The PCA

Memory added on July 1, 2021

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