Along with "Beefy" Turner and "Trigger"
Barrett, Adrian is one of the three "veterans" from the 1985
line-up who inherited the club and all who sailed in her. This one-time colt
who recently celebrated his thriftieth, sorry, thirtieth birthday soon made his mark with the ball, his natural swing often the
deciding factor in contributing a goodly haul of wickets. This swing
"bends both ways" as it were though, as one or two wides
over the years proves. It does work in his favour at times when the
straight ball comes after three not so straight ones to whip the bails
off. Sometimes.
His
speciality is the one that bends with the arm, of course AFTER he's bowled the ball. On
his day he could get the ball to swing a long way so perhaps it's just as well that a
President's day past with all its jollity saw the club's first ten-ball over from Adrian.
It WAS very windy, after all. Sadly, other commitments had made it difficult for
"Bertie" to play on more than a few occasions in recent years. He can
breathe more easily now - Ben Pudney managed an even dozen deliveries
during
one over on tour in 2002. Sadly for Ben, there was no excuse, not even
the hint of a gentle breeze to be
felt to give him one. And one is all it takes.... (Stop
this at once! - ED)
Adie has always had a natural eye with
the bat, for example at Grayswood in 1994 where he top-scored in the
middle order, all others having fallen by the wayside.
More recently, due to a preponderance of bowlers Adie has concentrated on developing into a
cavalier middle order bat. The opposition have often made the mistake of thinking Adrian
is as innocuous as he appears when coming in. It can be about 50/50 or even
60/40 (what's 10 between batsmen?) but when he's got his
eye in and the willow actually connects with leather the bowler can only sigh in despair,
another accurate delivery is slogged to the boundary with the minimum of respect, thanks
to Adie's intuitive timing. His
inimitable style
was ably demonstrated on the 2002 tour game at Mount Hawke where he
top scored with 44, an even 40 more than his next highest score all
year!
Opposing
fielders have been heard muttering during late Summer evenings, complaining
that they cannot see the ball due to the sun's glare off of his forehead.
Tough, we say, and pass the varnish.
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