A Golcar ‘All-Star XI’

‘Thorpy’ celebrates 30 years at the Lilies

Peter Redding (Huddersfield Univ – 2007) talks to David Thorpe:

2007 marks the 125^th anniversary of the year that St. John’s Golcar became Golcar Cricket Club, the name the club is known by today.

Golcar CC has a long and proud history and this is symbolised by the quality of the players that have graced the ‘Lilies’ over the years from all corners of the globe, and it has become a popular trend in recent times, when looking at the history of clubs, counties and countries, to pick all-time elevens with the unanswerable question as to how players from different eras would cope playing with or against each other.

All-time elevens provoke great speculation and also great debate because it is hard to compare players from different eras, and in addition to this it is impossible to find people who will have seen every player play throughout the history of a club, particularly a club such as Golcar, whose history stretches back into the 19^th century.

One man who has seen more comings and goings than most at Swallow Lane is David Thorpe (above), whose association with the Lilies dates back 30 years since his arrival at the club in 1977 as a young batsmen making his way in the Second XI.

‘Thorpy’ spent a decade in the first team up until his retirement in the late 1980’s, and from this time until the present day he has been a regular viewer at Swallow Lane, and has also helped coach the younger age groups at the club, with some of these players now having broken into the Golcar first team.

Having been a player, spectator and coach at the club, David Thorpe is therefore in a good position to name a ‘Golcar All Star XI’ from the last 30 years.

Before I asked David about his team he told me the criteria that he had used to pick his ‘Dream Team’:

“The first thing is to stress is that I have picked the best team, and not the best 11 cricketers, I have tried to pick a balanced team with batsmen in the right positions in the order, and a bowling attack that includes both seam bowlers and spinners.

Also with the quality of overseas players that have turned out for the club over the years it would be very easy to pick a whole team of overseas players, but I have tried to pick a balanced team of overseas players and local lads”

So here is David Thorpe’s All Star Golcar XI:

John Cooper (1968-2004), LHB: Opening batsmen who regularly played the anchorman role for Golcar, allowing the shot-makers to play around him.

Incredibly consistent and during the course of his 37-season career he became the leading runscorer in the history of the Huddersfield League.

“He was a steady accumulator of runs and had a good temperament, he gives the team the right balance because you need batsmen that are prepared to bat for a long time as well as players that attack”.

Prakash Karkera (1989-1990), RHB: Indian first-class cricketer in the late 1980s.

“Had more shots than John Cooper but you would expect that seeing as he was a first-class cricketer; he was capable of making big hundreds”.

Karkera scored eight centuries during his two seasons at the club and it is probably due to the batting riches in Indian cricket that he was limited to only 27 first-class matches.

Steve Whitwam (1995-2000, 2005-present), LHB, OS: A youth team graduate who scored his maiden century at the age of just 16.

“Steve has more shots than most of the batsmen and he is also a handy off-spin bowler”.

Whitwam is the premier all-rounder in the Golcar team and has collected the best all-rounder title in the Huddersfield League for the past two seasons.

Shane Deitz (1995), LHB, Wicketkeeper: “Shane only played for Golcar for one season when he wasn’t training with South Australia, and he didn’t actually keep wicket at the club because he wanted to bowl”.

During the 1995 season he claimed figures of 7 for 27, “not bad for a wicketkeeper”, as well as hitting four centuries.

Deitz is an aggressive left-handed batsman and is still plying his trade with South Australia; he recently turned out against the touring England side, making 24 with the bat and claiming four catches and a stumping.

Atul Bedade (1999-2004), LHB: “Atul (above) would be picked for his entertainment value alone; he was known in India for his ability to hit sixes and he didn’t treat bowlers with much respect. His weakness was probably that he often got bored particularly against lesser sides; he was more motivated by the bigger occasions”.

Bedade is best remembered at Swallow Lane for his mammoth innings of 234 not out against Hall Bower in the Sykes Cup.

It was this kind of power that allowed him to score over 3,000 first class runs for Baroda in India as well as contributing regularly throughout his six seasons at Golcar; Bedade also played 13 One Day Internationals for India.

Sanjeev Sharma (1987-1988), RHB, RM: “Sanjeev was predominantly a bowler, he perhaps didn’t put himself forward enough. I remember a game when he was reluctant to bat but he went in early and he was by far our best batsman”.

Sharma is best remembered at Golcar for taking two nine-wicket hauls against Bradley Mills and Lockwood, and is famous to cricket fans the world over for being the bowler who had the misfortune of having Graham Gooch dropped in the early stages of his innings at Lords in 1990; Gooch went onto make 333. It proved to be the last Test match Sharma played for India.

Kevin Plant (early 1980s), LHB, LM: “Kevin was an excellent cover-point fielder; he would save about 20 runs in some games and he was an excellent athlete because he played at stand-off for the Yorkshire county rugby team; he was also a PE teacher. He once got injured playing in a rugby final, and it kept him out of some of the cricket that season, I don’t think some people were happy about that! He was a fielder who the opposition were always wary of and they were frightened to run when the ball went anywhere near him”.

Plant was also a talented left-arm seam bowler who has taken hauls of 8 for 49 against Lockwood, and 7 for 19 against Linthwaite.

Phil Eastwood (early 1990s), RHB, RM: “Phil came through the junior team, he’s a local lad. He was an all-rounder who bowled right-arm medium pace. He went on to captain Slaithwaite”.

Eastwood’s best figures came against Old Almondburians in the Sykes Cup as he picked up 7 for 37 in 1994.

Bruce Jakeman (late 1980s), RHB, RM: “Bruce started off at Holmbridge at a very young age - he was something of a young prodigy. He came over to Golcar towards the end of his career and he was very enthusiastic. Bruce’s uncle played first-class cricket for Yorkshire and Northants.

Brian Turner (1968-1982), LHB, RM: “Brian (above) took well over 1,000 wickets in the Huddersfield League. He came to Golcar from Sheffield United, and was a bowler who attacked no matter what the situation was. I remember a match against Lascelles Hall where they needed six to win off the last ball. In that situation most bowlers would try and bowl it as wide as possible or at leg stump but Brian tried to take a wicket and that was his attitude - he wanted to take a wicket off every ball; in the end the lad hit a six and we lost that game”.

Turner was well known for his skilled use of the slope at Swallow Lane. Coming in from the Clubhouse End, he was able to seam and swing the ball in the same way that Glenn McGrath has used the slope at Lord’s over the years.

Brian Turner also played two matches for Yorkshire and with combined figures of 4 for 47 he was unlucky not to play more matches for the White Rose County.

Jasbir Singh (mid-1980s), LHB, SLA: “Jasbir was an old fashioned slow left- arm bowler with a classical action. He was very reminiscent of Monty Panesar both in his action and his appearance because he was a Sikh and he always wore a turban. He has since gone on to become an umpire and he has officiated in six One Day Internationals”.

Singh took 96 first-class wickets during his career at 24.50 apiece, a very impressive record.