The members and spectators that attended the first day of Middlesex’s Rothesay County Championship match against Leicestershire on Friday (16 May) would, on a number of occasions, have been excused for walking past someone and thinking or saying to their mate - ‘isn’t that so and so?’
The reason for these double takes was that Middlesex Cricket held its annual Players Day on Friday, and their were dozens of former players at the ground. The day was a huge success with, in total, more than 120 former Middlesex male, female and disability players, and their families/guests in attendance.
The gathering point was the Coronation Garden, behind the Warner Stand, and an avid autograph hunter would have been able grab the signatures of former greats like Mike Brearley, Mike Gatting, John Emburey, John Price, Alan Jones, Clive Radley, Paul Downton, John Carr, Roland Butcher, Mike Roseberry, Mike Selvey and Harry Latchman to name but a few.
The highlights of the day, other than seeing huge figures in Middlesex’s history reminiscing and enjoying each other’s company, were a magnificent picnic lunch produced by Denise Fraser, the wife of Angus, and the presentation of 16 Ceremonial Middlesex Caps.
To have played for Middlesex is a huge achievement and each year the club presents ceremonial caps to recognise and celebrate those that have represented the county. When a cricketer plays for Middlesex they receive a number and the caps they are presented with have this or these numbers on them. Middlesex’s disability and women players have their name and one number on the peak of their caps. The men potentially have three numbers - for 1st Class, List A and T20 cricket debuts - and, if they were capped, the year in which this took place, along with their name, on the peak.
This year caps were presented to players from –
Middlesex Disability Cricket: Jaidev Charan, George Greenway, James Nordin, Chloe Sainsbury and Kester Sainsbury.
Middlesex Women’s Cricket: Gemma Marriott, Olly Phillipson and Clare Ross
Middlesex Men: Chris Batt, Tim Bloomfield, Alastair Fraser, Jason Harrison, Tom Lace, Scott Newman, Steven Sylvester and Robbie White.
Middlesex Cricket would like to thank Denise Fraser and her helpers for all their efforts in providing a wonderful lunch, Lisa Whybrow for her help in organising the day, the MCC for allowing the club to use the Coronation Garden as it did and Ramesh Kerai for his generous support for the day.
We very much look forward to another successful gathering again next year, at an annual evet that is growing in popularity each and every year.
A selection of images taken at the Annual Players' Association Day are shown below...
