Has the average age of senior cricketers got higher or is it just a case of the best wine gets better with age? Certainly some of our best performers are no spring chickens but they still produce the goods week in week out.
In the North-West the McBrine twins Junior and James as good as anything around and 'old' swingers in their forties like Decker Curry, Malachy Porter, John Gillespie and Davy Lecky to mention but a few, are more than a match for any 'young guns!' When you add half-century men like Sion's Ray Moan, Raymond Mitchell, Dougie Huey, and the ageless Bobby Rao, there's no shortage of fine 'golden oldies' competing with the best on any Saturday afternoon up the M2. It all adds to the fun and enjoyment of local cricket and the game is a lot richer for their presence.
The NCU have their fair share of seasoned 'pros' of the local variety and most clubs have an 'oul hand' or two in the closet that can always answer the call of club and country. It appears Waringstown's Garfield Harrison could play until he's seventy as he's just as good as ever and when called into action both Alan Neil and Ross McCollum are still mighty batsmen. Week in week out 'oul Da Haire' in Comber has been a great servant of the North Down cause in much the same way that players like Geoffrey Ferguson a Downpatrick seem to have been around forever and can still produce the goods.
But who's the oldest swinger in town in the top section of the NCU these days you may ask?That's easy, none other than Billy 'Bumper' Dale at Instonians, now reputedly in his sixtieth year! Billy's enthusiasm and never-say-die attitude aren't the only reasons for his longevity because he's also a fitness fanatic, teetotal, doesn't smoke and has only looked at one woman in all his life. At least that's what he claims! When all's said and done Bumper is one of the local game's great characters these days but if he's out to set any records he has a few years still to go to top North Down's legendary Willie Andrews. Big Willie was still first eleven captain at 63 and played well into his seventies.
Keep taking the pills guys!
