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2002 was indeed the year of the Butch. Butch Junior fired us up
yet again with his soulful guitar playing at the PCA Awards Dinner,
and Dad Al took the prize of Bunbury Player of the Year.
I’ve known “Al” for 25 years following his career
with Surrey, Glamorgan and England.
We always enjoyed an adventure or two and one such occasion comes
to mind. I was appearing at the Everyman Theatre in Cheltenham in
1981, Surrey were playing Gloucestershire in the Cheltenham Festival.
After the game, Al, Dave Smith, Ray Baker and I went out on the
town. Walking towards us was a policeman. Convinced she was a Strip-O-Gram
girl, we had a bit of a laugh, twanging her suspenders and trying
on her hat.
As she got out her notebook and said “And your name Sir is?”
we roared “Very lifelike darling you could be real Old Bill!”.
With that, WPC no. 4026 Wendy Cunningham felt my collar and “arrested”
me laughing and said, “Dave English it’s just not your
day”.
“Al”, a hard hitting left handed opening batsman, travelled
hundreds of miles to play for the 2002 Buns. Whether he was bowling
left arm spin or quick, chirping away in the deep or cover driving
us to another victory, he was a revelation.
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