Lives in Cricket No 23 - Brief Candles

68 which meant he was never in contention for a place in the national side for a Six Nations game, or for a regular international place thereafter. In the face of such setbacks, gradually Stuart’s enjoyment of professional rugby palled. After six seasons at the top level of the game, he retired. Later, he commented: ‘When I was an amateur, I just loved playing the game. It was great fun, something that you did before going for a few beers. I don’t regret anything I’ve done or any of the decisions I’ve made, but professional rugby was grinding me down … [by the end] my heart just wasn’t in it. I was sick of rugby.’ 108 Sick of rugby, at the pro level at least, but not of cricket. For as he told me more than once, ‘cricket was always my first love’: a remarkable statement from one who had done so well in another sport. In 2009 he returned to the Grange side in the Scottish National Cricket League, scoring 283 runs in his first year back, and improving to 379 in 2010, with a top score of 96; he is still without another top-level century, despite his 100 per cent record in first-class cricket. Not that he has been completely centuryless since 2002: in July 2005 he made 128* out of an innings total of 210 in a festival match to commemorate 150 years of cricket at Raeburn Place. But that 169 remains, so far, the best score of his cricketing life. Stuart now says: ‘Looking back, I would love to have done more in cricket. 108 From an article in The Herald, 27 September 2009. Runs Aplenty The Cambridge University side of 2002. Standing (l to r): D.R.Heath, A.Shankar, S.J.Marshall, J.S.D.Moffat, A.D.Simcox, D.E.T.McGrath, D.J.Noble, J.A.Heath. Seated: J.R.Moyes (wk), J.W.R.Parker (capt), T.R.Hughes, M.S.Chapman-Smith. This was the team which played a limited-overs match at Lord’s on 25 June, with Moffat as twelfth man. The first-class fixture, in the Parks, started on 26 June.