ALWAYS WANTED TO BE A WICKETKEEPER...

Wanting To Be A Wicketkeeper

I gazed at the leg protectors

With a modicum of surprise:

They beguiled me, they bewitched me,

The way they flapped at the thighs.

I so wanted a pair of my own to wear,

A gift my parents never acquired

And so I improvised in the back garden

Alone, with my imagination inspired…

I gazed at the large padded gloves,

With barely concealed fascination;

A cricket ball would become smoothly engulfed

And so to keep wicket became my inclination.

I desperately wanted a pair of my own,

A gift my parents never acquired

And so I improvised in the garden shed,

An only child, with a vision inspired…

An elastic sock garter just below my knees

Attached my soccer shin pads securely there;

When I walked they flapped against my thighs

And the pleasure was nearly too much to bear…

I tugged on mum’s adult gardening gloves next,

I looked the real deal, I thought

But gartered shin pads and mum’s soiled gloves

Didn’t afford me the appearance I sought…

Thus I strode round the back garden,

Or threw a tennis ball against a wall,

Catching it with a flourish like I was a wicketkeeper,

An imitation which did me no harm at all…

Pete Ray 

January 2017 

WANTED TO BE BEHIND THE STUMPS...

K.E.G.S. ASTON CRICKET TEAM, 1968-9...
ME SITTING UPON THE WALL.

NEPHEW-IN-LAW MART 'FAT' BALLINGER & ME CARRYING CHAIRS FOR SPECTATORS...

OPENING THE BATTING WITH MART'S DAD VIC...

THE GREAT WALLY GROUT...

THE ONLY IMAGE OF ME WHICH EXISTS WEARING WHAT I ALWAYS WANTED TO WEAR, @ HOLLY LANE, BIRMINGHAM, PLAYING FOR LUCAS G.K.S.

Watching on TV in the late 1950s when Australia appeared in Test Matches against England and seeing Wally Grout, the Aussie wicketkeeper, my hero at the time…

He was just brilliant to watch and I modelled my style upon him.

My neighbours must have laughed as I walked about the garden with two small shin pads flapping just above my knees but in fact, 

I WAS Wally Grout…

When I attended secondary school, I commandeered the pads and gloves right away and with my cricket slacks tucked into garish red football socks, spent many hours being Wally Grout, leaping about, catching, but only batting if I really had to.

I kept wicket for Lucas GKS too in later years…

Loved it.