When I started putting together the Lives & Times book in early 2014 I set my sights on trying to get Jonathan Agnew on board. If you get the book you will see that this turned into quite a mission, but in the end I managed to photographic him at Lord's which was fantastic. Considering we only had a few minutes together we managed to cram loads in, and that included a video message he kindly did for my cricket club, Knowl Hill, who had been bowled out for just 48 the previous week.
After that the cricket theme in the book went into overdrive. I was fortunate enough to be going to the first day of The Ashes series in Cardiff, so the night before I sent a message to David "Bumble" Lloyd on the off chance he might meet me, and to my surprise and delight he came through. I met him for a quick chat and photo during the morning session. Earlier I had been interviewed before the day's play started by Steve Harmison. I said to him that I would do the interview if I could photograph him for the book! Then finally to complete the hatrick that day I managed to get legendary West Indian fast bowler Michael Holding as he was leaving the ground at the end of the day. That could have gone badly wrong as you can read in the book, but he was lovely.
At the end of the summer I tracked down Australian sports journalist and broadcaster Melinda Farrell, who was covering the cricket for ESPN Cricinfo. The original plan was to meet up at the Edgebaston test, but with the game being over early that fell through. We ending up meeting outside Bank tube station a month or so later in London. She was great fun and was the first person to record a video message for the book.
Last but not least I captured the broadcasting legend Henry Blofeld on his 2015 autumn tour with Peter Baxter. This was fascinating as they were performing at the Norden Arts Centre in Maidenhead, which is in the same road where my Mum lived. In spite of having made a gruelling journey from the north that day he was a great sport and we got a photo and video done before his performance.
So all in all it became a bit of a cricket fest for me, and it was brilliant fun meeting them all. Lives & Times and my bowelcancerfundraising website have so far raised over £3800 for the Beating Bowel Cancer / Bowel Cancer UK. To see how you can order the book click here. My Mum passed away rom bowel cancer in August 2016.
The good news is that the cricket community has also been supporting my next book, The Record, which I am currently writing. So far I have met Daniel Norcorss, George Dobell, Natalie Germanos, and Mike Selvey. I also have Ebony Rainford-Brent to meet, and I have totally give up on getting Phil Tuffnell....
