Worcestershire batsman Joe Clarke will be blogging exclusively for ecb.co.uk throughout the season. In the first instalment, he discusses James Taylor’s sudden retirement, Tom Fell’s positive attitude, and a damp start to the season.
It has been a tough start to the season for everyone in county cricket, because of the news we heard last Tuesday morning that James Taylor has been forced to retire.
Your sympathies go out first to James and his family, obviously – because as Moeen Ali said when he came into the dressing room the following day, he’s never come across anyone who loves the game as much.
It must have been such a shock for Jimmy’s Nottinghamshire team-mates, and also to Leicestershire where he started his career. But he also had very strong connections with us at Worcester, mainly because of his background at Shrewsbury School in Shropshire.
I’m a Shropshire lad myself, and I’ve done a lot of work with Paul Pridgeon, the former Worcestershire bowler who was Jimmy’s coach at Shrewsbury. He still used to work with Paul quite regularly – he was still his go-to coach in many ways.
Joe Leach was at Shrewsbury with him, and they’re close – they always go for dinner when we play Notts. So it was especially upsetting for him and Ed Barnard, who was also at Shrewsbury a few years younger. They knew he’d gone into hospital, and that was the reason he wasn’t playing in Notts’ first game against Surrey – but no-one expected it to be that serious.
I think that was how Titch wanted it – he didn’t want people worrying and making a fuss. I sent him a message after the news came out and he got back to me within an hour saying how much he appreciates all the support. I saw a picture of Chris Woakes when he went to see him in hospital on Thursday, and again you’ve got to admire his positive attitude.
First of all you think how cruel it is, then you think it could have been far worse – and that he’s had a brilliant career as it is. I think he’s the best player of spin I’ve seen or played against, just incredibly good, and someone I’ve looked up to since I was young – especially because he was from Shropshire. He’s shown what you can achieve, and that’s a big inspiration to me.
Closer to home one of our Worcestershire team-mates has also been inspiring us with his courage and positive attitude over the last few months. Tom Fell, who is one of my best mates at the club, was diagnosed with testicular cancer last autumn, and in February he was told he would need chemotherapy.
I found out just before we went on our pre-season trip to Abu Dhabi, and to be honest that first week out there a few of us were really struggling to handle it. I didn’t really have a clue what chemotherapy meant.
But a bit like Jimmy Taylor, Tom has made us feel more positive about him by being so positive about it himself. He’s already been into the ground one day and the lads who saw him in the nets said you wouldn’t know anything was wrong.
I went to see him in hospital last week with Tom Kohler-Cadmore, and at first it was quite upsetting seeing him attached to all these wires, whilst the chemo was dripping into him. But he was in very good spirits – I did my bit by letting him beat me at Fifa. He left hospital that evening and he’s hoping to come in for a couple more days next week to train, if he feels ok.
The way I see it I’m just keeping his position at number three warm, until hopefully Felly gets back later in the season to the spot where he played so well for us last year. He hasn’t missed much at the moment.
It rained when we were in Abu Dhabi – the people out there said it was the worst in 10 years – and then we had the massive frustration of having our first Championship game against Kent completely washed out. Even yesterday, the ground was too wet for us to practise outside, so we had to go to Malvern College for an indoor session.
We haven’t got a game in the next round of games so it feels like we’re having another pre-season to be honest. But we’re going to be seriously excited and keen to get out there when we go down to Bristol to play Gloucestershire next week.
Source: ECB