I wasn't fat. 'Burly' or 'stocky might be more apt descriptions.
And I wasn't much cop at rugby, I think they just figured I had the right attributes to play in the front row to start with. I moved from hooker to prop as I grew, then to blindside flanker. And when it was discovered I was pretty useful at place kicking, they put me at full back, which I hated. So useless was I there, they had to hide me out on the right wing, where to be honest I was even more useless but less prone to glaring errors
Cricket was my real love though. As an opening bowler, I represented Worcestershire at county schoolboy and county cricket association at under-15, under-16 and under-19 level.
I was even fortunate enough to have been given two trials at Gloucestershire. On the first occasion, I had a wonderful day bowling at Andy Stovold, Alistair Hignell, Sadiq Mohammed, and the masterful Zaheer Abbas. And all the time under the watchful gaze of one of my all-time cricketing heroes, the then Gloucestershire skipper Mike Proctor.
I obviously showed enough potential to warrant a call-back early the following season and was invited to attend a day of indoor nets, but I was unable to match the performance on this occasion and that was effectively the end of my pursuit of a career in professional sport.
Talking of old photos, I still have a few team photos from school and from the association. One in particular shows me as a diminutive 4th form opening bowler playing for the school First XI, surrounded by a team of 'older boys' drawn from the 5th and 6th forms
I'll dig it out when I can be arsed. And you will be impressed by my afro
