Lives in Cricket No 30 - MJK Smith

153 Back to Broughton Astley In close touch with all his children, Mike lives within half an hour’s drive of Neil with whom he goes to many sporting events. With a home not far from Warwick School, where he works, Neil will gratefully call on his father whenever he needs someone to take care of his dog, a task Mike fulfils with pleasure, Tigger, a lagotto or Italian truffle-hunter, sharing his passion for ball games. Neil’s first experience of working in a school came during the off season in his time with Warwickshire. His chance came when he was offered a job by his Wootton Court friend Jonathan Howell, at that time Sports Executive at The Oratory, where he had been involved in building up membership for the first real-tennis court to be built in England for over 80 years. Neil’s return to Warwick School, where he freely admits to teenage hours spent gazing out of classroom windows, came through Geoff Tedstone, a former colleague at Edgbaston who also played for Gloucestershire, who is now Director of Sport at the school. Neil spends his mornings as a groundsman, work which he thoroughly enjoys, before helping with rugby and cricket in the afternoons. He is delighted to be spared soccer, a game which he derides at the highest level for its ‘histrionics, play acting and lack of sporting etiquette’. Mike’s elder daughter Barbara and her husband Bob, who works in IT in further education, live in Kenilworth. Having spent 12 years running her nursery, where she catered for up to 26 pre- school children, Barbara sold the business when raising her own family became her priority. Now Lydia is 17 and Connie nearly 13, Barbara has resumed work with young children but restricts herself to looking after a small number in her own home, including those of friends she first met at Wootton Court. Claiming that it took her time to realise that her sporting talents were moderate only by comparison with other family members, she has enjoyed golf, though time precludes her playing at present. She detects athletic talent in Lydia, whose six foot frame and strong shoulders seemed well adapted for rowing, though A levels and the other preoccupations of teenage life have diverted her from the river. Connie, her mother insists, has ‘a mean throwing arm’ that Barbara believes could turn her into a fearsome bowler. Carole, now married to Sebastian Coe of athletic fame, lives in Surrey. With a brief modelling career that she claims made her ‘grow up’ now long behind her, Carole has spent over 12 years with House and Garden , for whom her specialty is writing copy for advertorials. Both her children from an earlier marriage are at