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Chesterfield CC Secretary, Steve Franks presents Malcolm Ashton with a bottle of wine.
Picture: Mike Taylor
VISIT OF MALCOLM ASHTON ON 8TH OCTOBER 2013
The evening started earlier than normal to accommodate the Society's AGM when there was another opportunity to thank the retiring chairman, David Marshall, for his sterling work over his ten years in office when the Society had grown from strength to strength.
The new Chairman, Mike Taylor, introduced the guest speaker, Malcolm Ashton, who started with a brief resume of his life as a scorer up to the present time when, as the Test Match Special scorer, he found himself being paid to do his hobby.
He felt that he was lucky to have been in the right place at the right time on a few occasions, citing first of all his being asked to score on TV. This in turn led in to him being asked to go to South Africa as the England scorer.
Understudying for the famous Bill Frindall on a few occasions meant he was working alongside Brian Johnston, Don Mosey and Fred Trueman and he was then asked to become the TMS scorer on the sad demise of the Bearded Wonder.
He regaled a fairly full house with a series of anecdotes from the TMS box and shared high- (and low-) lights of his time with England under the three groupings of players, places and personalities.
It all made for a highly informative and hugely enjoyable time and the same qualities were in ample evidence during the post interval question time which included an almost inevitable question about Mr G Boycott as well as many more on grounds, players, incidents, innovations and technology.
It all made for an outstandingly good start to the Society's new season and resulted in a sustained round of applause from a most appreciative audience.
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