Lives in Cricket No 30 - MJK Smith

115 Hotelier of Wootton Court side fromSouthAfrica that included Robbie Muzzell, an accomplished batsman and leg spinner, who had made his first-class debut for Western Province and played in two other matches against Mike’s MCC team in 1964/65. Mike remembers John Savage, the Leicestershire off spinner, bringing the Lancashire Second Eleven when he was their coach. With a cricket net erected in the garden, Leek Wootton, a thriving village side, would come down for pre-season practice. One summer Mike offered Rohan Kanhai a room at the club as his local base. So, from an early age, Neil was in good company to develop his interest in cricket and he was picking up tips that would set him on the road to the first- class game. For a time Jonathan Howell, father of the Hampshire and Gloucestershire batsman Benny Howell, was one of those who lived in and staffed the bar at Wootton Court. He had hoped to become a professional cricketer and played a few matches for Warwickshire Second Eleven in 1978, but was never offered a contract. Instead, he turned to real tennis, becoming club professional at nearby Moreton Morrell, going on to play the international circuit and rising to number four in the world. He and his wife have since run a new club in Bordeaux, and Jon also worked at The Oratory School near Reading. He is now senior professional at Melbourne. He introduced both Carole and Neil to real tennis, a game which Carole still plays. Mike looks back on a life in the hotel business that brought its Fawlty Towers moments: ‘The first wedding we did, we’d failed to nail a carpet down and Diana fell over with the cake.’ On another occasion a newly married couple were locked out on their wedding night. A provisional booking had not been confirmed, and Mike was in bed when he heard the newlyweds trying to get in. ‘I knew we’d sold out. I wasn’t going to get up!’ The local reporter sent to explore the story was a useful young cricketer whom Mike knew well and he was soon advised that the bridegroom had been at Neil aged ten. In Mike’s view this is a perfect batting stance.