Nomadic start to glittering local career

Photo: PICTURE: DARREN ROBINSON

A ROOM FULL OF MEMORIES... Mel Whittle is surrounded by the trophies, medals and pictures from a long and celebrated sporting career.

MEL Whittle retired from cricket last summer at the age of 63. His colourful career saw him play for many clubs and collect a kit bag full of memories and friends. In a series of interviews with KEITH McHUGH, Whittle reflects on the ups and downs of his 49-year career.
I FIRST played in the Central Lancashire League for Crompton when I was only 14.

During Oldham Wakes the cotton mills used to shut for two weeks and, as players went on holiday, the team found itself short and a couple of us were drafted in.

I opened the bowling and sharing the attack with me was Cec Wright, who went on to become a legend in local cricket.

But when the players came back from holiday, I lost my place and although I went on to play regularly with the under-18s I could not even get into the second team.

There was a lot of politics at the time at Crompton, so I decided to move on in order to get regular cricket, so I joined Shaw St Paul’s in the High Peaks League and played for them for two seasons.

I then moved to Blackpool, where I lived for two-and-a-half years.

I joined Blackpool Cricket Club and was bowling quite quickly at the time, but the wicket there was a shocker for bowlers and it was hard work.

So when Ronnie Turner from Crompton invited me to go back to the club in 1975 I was interested even though I was still living on the coast.

Ronnie was the main man at Crompton in those days and he was instrumental in bringing me back to the club.

Although I was only an amateur, he agreed to pay my train fare so I came back every week to play for the club with Mike Richardson as professional.

I started off the 1976 season at Crompton, but after three games I went to Saddleworth League club Greenfield as professional.

John Foxall from Werneth was professional there, but he had undergone a major knee cartilage operation which ruled him out for the season.

I did OK at Greenfield and they asked me if I wanted another contract there for the following year, but they were not prepared to give me the £16 per game I wanted rather than the £8 they had been paying me.

They were prepared to pay that amount to West Indian fast bowler Roy Gilchrist, though, and spells back at Crompton and Radcliffe (as captain) followed before I decided I was going to pack in the game.

I was working for myself and had so much on at the time.

I was actually fitting conservatories, which was very time-consuming and involved travelling a lot, which meant I could not get to the nets in the evenings.

I was on the verge of finishing with cricket and said I would have one more season at Shaw St Paul’s, only to get a phone call from Arthur Drury at Oldham, who asked me if I fancied playing there.

So I went to watch Oldham on the Saturday before the season started and could not believe how excited the team was about the possibility of me playing for them.

I quickly decided to join the club and what followed was a tremendous period in my career.




NEXT WEEK: Playing with Franklyn Stephenson at Oldham and some special times in the Bolton League.