In June 1957, in my last term at Stoneygate School in Leicester, aged just thirteen, I made my highest score in a cricket match: 110 not out.
What’s more, this was against my previous school in Coventry, whose best bowler (and bat) was Bryan Richardson, one of the finest schoolboy cricketers of his generation. I reached the century lofting him over his head for six.
This was the day that I discovered how news stories work. The Daily Express had sent along a reporter and a photographer to cover the match. The following day, the back page of the paper was covered in action photos of the game. But I was nowhere to be seen. The pictures and the story were all about Bryan.
How could this be?
Of course the Express had covered the game, not because of my prowess, but because young Bryan’s two older brothers, Peter and Dick Richardson, had just been selected to play for England against the West Indies, a first for siblings.
Ah. So that’s how it works.
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