I first started playing cricket properly at the age of 11 when a colleague of my Dad’s mentioned that he thought I had ‘decent hands’ and should go down to the local junior cricket nets at the Old Wulfrunians Cricket Club in the South Staffordshire Cricket League. My Dad had always played cricket and in fact appeared fielding at Headingley in a Test match between England and West Indies when Ian Botham and Mike Gatting got injured. Naturally I spent many Saturday afternoons watching him play and messed about on the side of the pitch trying my hand at the game; however football was always my first love.

At the age of 12 I had played a handful of hardball cricket games and got selected to attend a Staffordshire Cricket trial. It was the most nervous I had ever been turning up to this trial and that was not helped by the majority of the people there knowing each other from the previous 2 years together. In those days the trials lasted for 5 hours made up of a mixture of nets, fitness and fielding. I remember bowling reasonably well and fairly quick in the nets but the atmosphere of the 5 hours sent me away with a very negative feeling about the trial. A few weeks later I got a letter through the post saying that I’d been selected for the Staffordshire U12 squad; to this day it stands out in my memory as one of the best feelings. I proceeded to play that season for Staffordshire with great success and the feeling of loneliness that I experienced in the U12 trial was quickly forgotten.

Unfortunately the U13 season was hampered by a bad back injury through bowling too much; I slipped 3 discs and although followed the team around, didn’t play any part in the season. At the time I was also playing district football for Wolverhampton and due to the intensity of both sports as well as public school sport for Wolverhampton Grammar school I was pushed to choose between football and cricket. This was a tough decision to make and one that I would not recommend doing too early if possible; I am a big believer of playing as many sports as possible when you are younger for a number of reasons. However I decided on cricket and gave up playing football for Wolverhampton. A coach at school called Theo King, who I still remain good friends with, ‘took me under his wing’ and introduced fitness drills to me that he had picked up during his time working with the England cricket team. All of these mixed with extra bowling sessions once I was fit enough seemed to pay off as I bounced back in my U14 and 15 seasons gaining regional and national recognition for my performances.

Through the national training squads that I attended, whispers of first class county interest were heard and I ended up getting letters from Leicestershire, Worcestershire, Surrey, Derbyshire and Northamptonshire to trial for their academies. Due to the dates that the trials were on I didn’t end up going to Worcestershire or Leicestershire and I had decided that Surrey was too far but not before I had played a game for their U18 team. I went to the Northants and Derbyshire trials and was offered a place on both of their academies. I had to make another decision at the age of 16 of which county I wanted to join the academy of; a great position but a very difficult one. For geographical reasons and because of the rapport I had built up with the coaches at the trial, I chose Derbyshire and began training with them a week before my 17th birthday.

By March the following year, still in my first year on the academy, I was offered a professional summer contract with Derbyshire. This was the best feeling I have ever experienced! I made my 2nd XI debut in 2005 against Surrey at Belper CC turning out against the likes of Ian Salisbury and Nayan Doshi. I played a few more times for the second XI that year although suffered with shin splints which stopped me from bowling for about 6 weeks during the season. Throughout that time I was released to go and play for Staffordshire as a batsman in 3 of their U17 2 day games. As a junior for Staffs I always batted at number 11 so for the lads to see me coming into the team and batting at number 5 was somewhat of a joke! The first game was against Huntingdonshire and I scored an unbeaten 100 which was my maiden century at junior county level; the work I did on my batting in the academy was coming to fruition. I then scored a half century against Leicestershire the following week which gave me great confidence and I was desperate to get back to Derbyshire and play in the 2nd XI again.

The following season after a hard winter including a fitness fortnight in Barbados, I featured more in the 2nd XI for Derbyshire and started to get wickets. My shins were still playing up but I battled through most of the season and represented the north of England in a regional tournament at Loughborough. After my best 2nd XI performance at Chesterfield CC against Gloucestershire towards the end of the season I got a call from the first team coach, David Houghton, asking me to travel in the squad to New Road for the Pro40 game against Worcestershire live on Sky Sports. I didn’t know whether I would be playing in the game as we had a squad of 13 on the bus but nevertheless I did not sleep a wink the night before due to nerves that I had never experienced before.

We got to New Road in plenty of time and started to warm up, the wicket was a bit green and I had bowled well in net practice before. I was getting through on adrenalin and it wasn’t until 20minutes before the start of play that I got the nod to make my debut. We won the toss and decided to bowl and I was told I was opening the bowling. Graeme Welch said before we took the field, “Enjoy it Rich, you’ll remember this day for the rest of your life.” To this day I cannot remember any of the balls that I bowled during the game, I was in a bubble the whole day. I didn’t manage to take a wicket and only scored 2 runs with the bat but the experience is one I definitely won’t forget and it is great to say I have played against the likes of Graeme Hick, Kabir Ali, Stephen Moore, Lou Vincent and Zaheer Khan.

At the end of the season I decided I wanted to make cricket my career and so deferred my place at Leeds Met University by a year to do so. Unfortunately, the chief executive at the time did not support my decision financially and left me with no option but to go and speak to other counties.

I had been coached at regional training sessions by David Capel and he had even helped me remodel my action to stop my back injuries from reappearing. He had just become head coach at Northamptonshire, a county who offered me a place on their academy just two years before. I spoke to him and he invited me down for a net as it had been a while since he had seen me bowl competitively. After that net I was offered a genuine one year deal as a full time professional, an offer that didn’t compare to what I was offered to stay with Derbyshire. I signed a week later and started training with Northants immediately!

Next month’s blog…… ‘My 2 years in Northampton’