I can still remember the day. Six years old and sat in the back of my Dad’s car on the way to school one morning, telling him we were due to start playing cricket in PE this term and not really knowing exactly what it was. His response of “Harry, this is your sport” will stay with me forever. It turns out his matter of fact statement of my suitability to the sport of cricket was in fact a correct one. Since that day it has played a major role in my life, both in what I have achieved on the pitch and what I hope to achieve off it.

Shortly after my first experience of hitting (or trying to hit) tennis balls round the Leeds Grammar School sports halls my dad took me along to Wednesday night training sessions at Collingham CC. It was here where, for the next decade, I played the most enjoyable cricket of my career to date. I put my success as a junior cricketer at Collingham down to three factors, all of which provided me with a platform from which to try and pursue a career as a professional cricketer with Yorkshire CCC. The first of these factors was my parents’ interest in my cricket, which has led to them driving me thousands of miles over the last 15 years to ensure that I never missed a game of cricket. This enthusiasm for my cricket also meant my father giving up his spare time to manage the junior teams at Collingham for several years, ensuring that all the behind the scenes business was taken care of, so that my friends and I could go out and take on the world on the pitch (or so we thought)!

The second of these factors was the willingness of Collingham CC to provide the talented young players at the club with the opportunity to play for both the older age group sides and for the clubs senior teams. This meant that from the age of eight I often spent my Sunday mornings fielding for the under 15’s side and even if this meant that under the captaincy of my older brother I had to run the length of the field between each over fielding “fine-leg to fine-leg”, there was still nowhere in the world I’d rather be!

The third factor was my mates at Collingham who I spent my youth taking the field with and with whom I shared many great victories and the odd devastating defeat. Many summer evenings were spent representing one of Collingham’s various age-group sides and regardless of a win or a loss, this would always be followed up with a game of quick cricket on the outfield while our parents supported the club by boosting the takings behind the bar. It’s a pleasure to still play indoor cricket for Collingham with a few of these lads on a Sunday evening at the Headingley indoor centre.