KNIGHT LOOKING TO THE FUTURE

Date: 25th July 2014

A Paul Edwards copyright exclusive for L&DCC Official Website.

Ormskirk and Glamorgan Keeper keen to progress.

What is it about Ormskirk’s wicketkeeper-batsmen? I first reckoned that John Simpson might make it as a professional player when I saw him carrying fresh fruit around the Brook Lane pavilion. Not that his cricket wasn’t impressive, you understand; quite the contrary, in fact. But anyone who was happy to be seen ambling around with a plastic bag filled with melon around the place clearly didn’t give a sweaty jockstrap what he looked like as long as he was preparing himself properly for his cricket. As Mal Loye once said: “If you want to be a professional, you have to make it the whole commitment”.

As far as I know, Gary Knight manages to get through a Saturday afternoon without a supply of kiwi-fruit and guava-halves on his person, but almost from the first time I saw him come out to bat in a knockout match at Ormskirk, I thought he looked a player to be reckoned with, someone worth watching.

It was just the compact, business-like air he conveyed at the crease and the way he built his innings: each shot seemed a tiny stage in the construction of the whole. The wicketkeeping was very good, too. I realised that about his glovework when it suddenly occurred to me that I hadn’t noticed him for an hour or so. He’d just caught everything, mostly without needing to dive about.

Knight's skills help him fit very nicely into the Ormskirk set-up, even though a hamstring injury is currently keeping him out of action. He is in his fourth year at the club and appreciates the chance the club gave him when he was considering moving from Longridge.

"It was very lucky really," he said. "My Dad played cricket with Mike Taylor and we got to hear that John was leaving and that Ormskirk were looking for a keeper. I appreciate the culture of success that is fostered at the club.

"I don't want to sound arrogant but if we have our full side out and play at our best, then we should win the vast majority of the games we play until we come up against teams like Shrewsbury or West Indian Cavaliers in the national knockout.

That competition was made for us and we take it very seriously, as I think other clubs should."

Despite his recent injury - and the fact that he bats behind a few half-decent players in Ormskirk's top order - Knight has scored 333 league runs this season with one century and a couple of fifties, but he has also performed well for Glamorgan's second team in 13 Championship and 11 Trophy matches. His desire to make it as a professional cricketer barely needs to be stated. In the autumn he will return to Perth, where he plays first grade cricket for Swan Valley.

"You learn such a lot from talking to players like Murray Goodwin about the game," Knight said. "He's an unbelievable player of spin and he must have scored something like 5,000 runs through square leg or backward point. He's full of advice about how to bat in the longer formats and says that how you get to 10 is how you get to 20 and so on."

So how might Glamorgan's second team get on if pitted against Ormskirk's full-strength side with Kerrigan, Caunce, Farrell, Hurt and Griffiths making up the attack? Most people I've talked to reckon it would be a close match and Knight agreed.

"It would be a good three-day match," he said, a comment which, incidentally, reflects rather well on both the skills and fitness levels of Ian Robinson and his players. Maybe someone should try and set it up.