Four years ago I stepped out of my mums “taxi service vehicle” as a 14 year old, and embarked on 2 of the most enjoyable years of my cricketing career, in the company of the talisman of English cricket; David English and his Bunbury Cricket Festivals.  I will never forget the look on all my team-mates faces as we were first introduced to the great man who bowed and curtsied to us instead of the regulation handshake.  This valiant introduction led to the beginning of many friendly and fun relationships between master and schoolboy.

David English is quite simply a “big kid”.  He is just one big bundle of fun that no matter who you are, you just warm to without any hesitation.  Along with this, comes an almost patriotic desire for you lads to develop their cricketing talent and push them towards living their dreams of playing for England.  Everybody that has ever played in one of the festivals will agree with me when I say that the experience is something you will never forget and the memories of “The Bunbury spirit” are something you can take into anything, not just cricket.  As I have said, the reason all of this is possible and the reason I am where I am now is because of one man (and his little helpers) David English.

Great is an over used word, but not for this man.  He really is –

“The Great David English”

During The Shrewsbury School Festival I was lucky enough to win the fastest 50 award as a U14 which kick-started my future in cricket.  The England U15 side had already been picked but there was hope for the others who hadn’t been selected as 2 more were to be picked – I was one of them.  Having scored this fast 50 in the last game against the South and secured a Midlands victory, I thought I stood a fair chance of being dragged in as one of the late entrees but this was not to be.  I was bitterly disappointed after this but in a funny was it was the best thing that could have happened.  I moved to the Northamptonshire Academy from my home county of Bedfordshire where I managed to get over this disappointment and move on with my cricket.  The County were brilliant with me and worked closely to improve all aspects of my game from technical to media training.

The next year I was put back into the England U15 winter training squad and later, after a successful festival in Nottingham, won the scholarship to the ECB academy along with Billy Godlemen, Greg Wood and Stuart Meeker, and we were selected for the team to play against Scotland and Trinidad and Tobago.  The experience of playing against other countries was amazing and a real eye opener to experience the cultural differences in the West Indies and the way they play the game.  The Academy scholarship provided four of us with the chance of working with the elite English cricketers such as; Kevin Piertersen, Alastair Cook and even everybody’s favourite hero; Freddie Flintoff.  This is an experience most people can only dream of and it was all made possible because of David’s Bunbury Festivals.

Next came the England U15 tour to South Africa where I first learnt of what true competitiveness was as the boys over there play as if their lives depend on it.  Unfortunately as a team we did not have the best of times abut it was another experience that I could only praise and one that made my game ever stronger.  I had an absolute nightmare with the bat on tour but I then had to come back to Northamptonshire, forget what had happened and work on the areas that had gone wrong overcome this bad time.

In contrast with this, that same English season produced many opportunities including my 2nd team debut as a young 15 year old, against Leicestershire where I managed to scrape my way to a long 84 not out, some various television appearances and a sponsorship deal.  One thing led to another at Northamptonshire and during last season I was picked to captain the England U17 side in a series of six on-day games against the European Academy and The Netherlands.  This was another brilliant experience and for once it was a positive experience in terms of my personal success as I managed to score a few with the bat and take a few catches in the slips.

This and my Northants second team record – where somehow I managed to top the batting averages – meant that I was selected for the new ECB skills sets where I would be mixing with the likes of Will Jefferson and Michael Carberry who are both substantial county performers.  This created me with a brilliant chance to improve my game and mix with the young county professionals to learn from them under the guidance of batting coach – John Abrahams and National Academy director – Peter Moores.

Along with the cricket side of things, the Bunbury Experiences can lead to many opportunities from sponsorship deals and work experience to even meeting the lovely ladies on which “David The Great” has unleashed his seductive charm on to get them down to the games.  What I am saying is that being involved with David’s absolutely amazing Festivals, can bring you not only fun, and exciting cricketing success but can bring you many more opportunities in whatever path you so wish to go down.  The friends that you meet during the festivals stay with you for life, the Bunbury stories you learn are truly inspirational and being associated with the legend himself is something you cannot beat.

All these opportunities and experiences that I have talked about could not have happened without you David and I am sure that I speak on behalf of all the ex-Bunbury Festival boys when I say that you are a truly inspirational character and without you English cricket would not be where it is now.

Thank you very much for all the memories.