IT’S a real exciting time for Accrington Cricket Club. We’ve been here for 148 years and the Property Shop lads have put their hand in their pocket to look after us for the next three years or so - maybe longer - by sponsoring the ground and the shirt.

They are from the area, and what we talk about all the time is community. We’ve got the football club up the road, and now the cricket club is going to be a little hub.

Accrington is a town of around 35,000 people and there’s a lot of sport and what you need, especially for young children, is participation.

This club started me off, and a lot of others. Graham Fowler, Bob Ratcliffe also played here, and lots of people who came from this area went on to play for Lancashire and England and we’re just a part of it.

I’ve spent my lifetime at Accrington Cricket Club and I’ve always thought it was a sleeping giant.

It’s a huge area, it’s flat, you can play all sorts of sports on it. I can think Huncoat Juniors play on here during the winter, there’s the tennis section, cricket of course, and so with the football club, the cricket club and the new arena with the playing fields it’s like a golden triangle.

Cricket is all I ever wanted to do. I used to come down every night, I was driven. Probably obsessive.

When I came back from county cricket, when I’d finished and I came back as pro and amateur, I absolutely loved it. It was terrific.

Then when we nearly went out of existence a few years ago and I made that comeback in my 60s, I have never been as nervous.

I’d trained, I got myself in good shape - I think I was 62 - and I came down and practised in the nets.

Dave Ormerod was captain.

I had to have a trial and the selectors were at the end of the net watching me play. I have never been as nervous!

I can defend, but I thought ‘I’ve got to play some shots here’.

And then I watched them go away, and then they came across and said ‘you’re in’.

That was bad enough, just the practice. But then I turn out for my first game and reality kicks in when you come down the steps and there’s plenty on.

I think we were playing Haslingden and I got heaps out there in the middle. But I survived.

But my mate at Haslingden, Mike Ingham, who’s nearly as old as me, he caught out at deep square leg and he still reminds me of it on Twitter.