An audience with the King of Spain

Posted by Tony Hutton

  

                                    Ashley Giles at Headingley last night.   

The Northern Cricket Society held it's first meeting of the New Year at Headingley last night.
Guest of honour was none other than Ashley Giles former Warwickshire and England left arm spin bowler and subsequently holder of several coaching roles with England, Lancashire and Warwickshire.

The meeting opened with a splendid account of the traditional Boxing Day match from the winning captain Andrew Stoddart, complete with the George Featherstone Trophy awarded to the winners.
Andy's enthusiasm for the game shone through, although one member of the audience commented rather unkindly that the winning margin would have been even larger if Andy could run faster between the wickets.

Then to the main event with Ashley Giles, although currently suffering with hip problems once again which originally brought about his retirement as a player, entertaining the large audience with an excellent talk. He started off on the theme of never forgetting where you came from and spoke with affection of his beginnings as a player with his local village side in Surrey when a young boy.

He also spoke with feeling of how your career can gain strength from adversity as he told of his time as a junior player with Surrey, originally as a quick bowler but soon finding out that his talents really blossomed as a spinner. Surrey were not happy with this and wanted him to continue as a quick bowler which led to the parting of the ways while still a teenager.

Thanks to the efforts of his father and elder brother he managed to secure a trial with Warwickshire and soon obtained a professional engagement. The rest is history and he spoke warmly of the influence of coach Bob Woolmer and skipper Dermot Reeve during his early days at Edgbaston.
He joined Warwickshire at a time of great success for the team, but even after he broke into the England side there were periods of doubt as to his permanence as an international player.

However it all came good in the end with the highlight of his career no doubt the 2005 Ashes series win when his performances with the bat as well as the ball were major contributions. His memories of that series were the highlight of the evening, especially the two days of celebrations in London after the Oval Test Match, which included a memorable visit to Downing Street.

In the question and answer session later in the evening he fielded all manner of queries with tact and diplomacy. He was particularly keen not to to be critical of England coach Trevor Bayliss, when asked if he should have done certain things differently and confirmed that Bayliss has an excellent track record as a coach.

He is obviously a deep thinker about the problems of coaching and man management and certainly seems to have enjoyed his time both with Lancashire and Warwickshire and feels very passionate about the counties' duty to produce Test Match players. He still feels the Ashes is the pinnacle of the game and we must do all we can to beat the Aussies as often as possible.

When tackled on the concerns of the audience regarding the future of county championship cricket he made a very interesting point in suggesting that the two division system may have run it's course and that most county coaches are obsessed with not being relegated from the top division. Something he knows all about as Warwickshire were relegated last season. He suggested this had led to short term policies, engaging overseas and Kolpak players too readily and not encouraging young English players to play regularly and develop properly.

Of course as my headline suggests he was asked the inevitable question about the famous benefit mugs which should have said 'Ashley Giles King of Spin' which were wrongly produced with the inscription of 'King of Spain'. He said this is something he can still not escape when shopping in supermarkets he is still greeted with calls of  'It's the King of Spain!'.

A thoroughly entertaining evening and as long as there are people like Ashley around we can feel confident that in some areas at least the game is in good hands.