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Upcoming, toward b having Kent v Sussex throughout the Gillette Cup on Canterbury

I joined all of them and you can stood throughout the longest queue, getting Greig’s signature. If this try in the end my personal change, We summoned up bravery and you can told him, that have a slight quaver, it absolutely was a good “helluva connect”. An alternate idol minted truth be told there and. For the next a decade, when he ran with the wide movement, Greig turned out an advisable however, tricky character – a gold doubloon, never totally losing its essential lustre but appear to searching for restorative polishing. Across the 2nd couple of seasons, We watched your off in the Hove for the majority house games. Save your self for five wickets and you will a brisk 93 facing Hampshire for the July 1969, I really don’t think of your to make people high share. But he constantly https://lovingwomen.org/da/blog/svenske-datingsider/ did things. A booming defense drive otherwise a pull shot moving off the scoreboard getting six.

Sussex thrashed all of them, and you will Greig are Man of the Match: 54 in the first innings, off 199, right after which five wickets

Or an effective bouncer injudiciously aimed at Mike Procter’s lead, exactly who following struck your for cuatro, cuatro, six, 4 when he was clobbered for over 130 out-of 20 weird overs. In which he usually closed autographs. I’d your seven minutes in two season. Once, the guy actually told you, “Ach, it’s your once more. We never saw your refute anyone. We seated according to the distributed boughs of one’s greatest lime tree. Robbo regaled united states throughout the day which have stories regarding viewing Les Ames, Godfrey Evans and you can Doug Wright because the a great boy. The middle lamb try a mind box who had build an enthusiastic encyclopaedic experience with Kent cricket, and to their father’s obvious fulfillment, not only admonished him as he nudged me personally and you will talked about an appealing “popsy” throughout the crowd however, corrected him when he got particular facts otherwise figure incorrect.

Which was commonly. Robbo try never one getting analytical detail; it was the storyline one mattered. Kent’s illustrious history – if or not facts or myth – failed to help much thereon sizzling hot July go out. Towards the end during the day, one another center mutton and Robbo themselves was certainly smitten. I realized you to definitely to be true since, despite his child regarding earshot, my personal brother not any longer talked-of the newest a lot of time streak of piss, however, of “Greigy”.

Greig starred simply a help role one time; a quick-fire 36 in the Sussex innings and two wickets, and additionally compared to Kent’s most readily useful scorer, Graham Johnson, stuck from the Tony Buss regarding an extended-hop

And you may Sussex achieved it once more three years after. Gillette Glass one-fourth-finally, August step one, 1973, in the Hove. From this date Greig is actually a recently dependent The united kingdomt member and you will Sussex master. Once again, I went with Robbo, therefore we almost skipped they. My personal cousin got organized a single day but when we pitched right up ticketless at Tate Gates, we had been firmly became away. A good sellout. The stewards (“bloody little Hitlers”) had no truck having Robbo’s “Get real, it’s the boy’s birthday now.” (It wasn’t.) However,, the guy wasn’t giving up you to definitely easily of course, if told a small warily about how I’d on crushed at no cost which have my personal friends, next thing We understood I was giving my personal portly cousin a leg-up-over a garden wall structure of a single of your own large households you to definitely recognized on the water avoid of the soil. To the, buoyed by the our very own achievements, Robbo’s attraction strike overdrive and then he for some reason nice-talked the newest reduced draconian from inside the-crushed ushers very effortlessly, that people ended up regarding gangway of one’s members’ pavilion, proper next to the players’ balcony. During the very first innings I watched given that Greig did their method using almost an entire packet of Benson and you may Hedges, and Robbo, really the only Kent advocate among us, cheered all the manage just like the their lads chased 264 in the 2nd. Now a teen, I found myself a tiny embarrassed by this, however, luckily for us here were not many. Works, that is. Kent was in fact bowled away getting 135. But you to did not amount. Given that users stood toward outfield and you may basked about cheers of your 10,000-strong audience, Sussex got won. I watched as small boys in-line to obtain the skipper’s autograph – I happened to be first of all you to definitely today – and detailed that Robbo had entered them. He and Greig was in fact in the near future engaged in move conversation. Both was indeed chuckling, thoughts thrown straight back, while the waiting line out-of short boys stretched, moving on desperately of legs to foot. Once exactly what searched for years and years, it shook hand passionately and you may Robbo patted his the friend familiarly on the rear. The guy showed up bounding back-up the fresh pavilion tips, clutching their finalized scorecard – “It’s on middle lamb,” he lied – and you will beaming out-of ear to ear. “He is a soft great bloke.” The feeling it had been Greig’s Sussex one obtained the video game are palpable. John Spencer, the fresh Sussex bowler, told me recently if Greig grabbed more, the entire ambiance on a club “dogged by the backbiting, cynicism and you may negativity” changed almost at once. Greig try an inhale out of bracing water heavens.