Devon Cricket Board - Sandford batsman passes 9,000 league runs

Adrian Small – with war paint on his nose – in a Devon line-up from 1994. Back (left to right): Matt Theedom, Orlando Le Fleming, John Rhodes, Keith Donohue, Andy Cottam, Nick Gaywood, Adrian Small. Front. Andy Pugh, Duncan Boase, Peter Roebuck, Nick Folland, Gareth Townsend
SANDFORD batsman Adrian Small has been looking back on his impressive career in the Devon League after passing 9,000 runs in 1^st Xi cricket.
Small’s 23 against Bradninch on Saturday took past the landmark.
He started out in 1993 with Exmouth after moving down from Hampshire to study at the University of Exeter.
Ten summers, five Premier titles and 5,600 runs later, Small joined Exeter for a season and a half, before taking a break for two years to play for Hursley Park in Hampshire.
It was quite a commute each Saturday from his Exeter home and when Sandford offered Small the chance to play for them he took it.
Had it not been for those two years in Hampshire and a lengthy injury break in 2013 and 2014 following knee surgery, Small probably would have passed 10,000 league runs by now.
Small is 43 next birthday and has no intention of retiring just yet. He has had too much fun playing cricket and as long as he can still contribute he will play on.
“I have been lucky that the two clubs I have played most of my cricket with in Devon have been fantastic for different reasons,” said Small.
“At Exmouth we had a group of very fine players together who all knew their jobs in the team, wanted to win and had a great time together socially,” said Small.
“It was a lot of fun and a privilege to play in the team, which was well captained for a lot of my time there by Julian Page.
“You needed to be firm and focused to control the strong characters we had – Tim Lester, Vinod Chouhan, Graham Smith, John Rhodes – and Julian was brilliant at it.
“He was the glue that held the side together.
“Sandford was another privilege, but for different reasons.
“There is no better place to be than at the other end, watching the likes of Richard Foan, Neil Bettis, David Lye and Richard Baggs plundering the bowling.
“It was nice to be part of the side that won the Devon Cup with Sandford.”
Small made his debut in the Exmouth 2^nd XI at Brixham on the opening day of the 1993 season, taking three wickets with his leg-spin at the old Northfields Lane ground.
The following week he was called up into the first team for the derby match with Sidmouth and stayed there for the next decade.
“Bob Dawson had been called away to play for Gloucesteshire at short notice so I had to go up,” said Small.
“It was ironic as the same thing had happened to at my first club in Hampshire, when Adrian Aymes was summoned by Hampshire and I made my 1^st XI debut as his replacement.”
The summer of 1995 was a golden one for Small when he became only the second Premier batter to top 1,000 runs in a summer.
Small, Exmouth clubmate Nick Folland. Andy Pugh (Brixham and Barton), Dave Tall (Plymouth), Barry Shaw (Bovey) and Steve Willis (Exeter) were prolific Devon League Premier run scorers during the early 1990s, when seasons were 22 games rather than 18 as they are now.
Only Andy Pugh (1992) had made a thousand runs (1129) in a Premier season – and he hit a whopping 1,400 in the A Division in 1994.
“At the time I was playing a bit for Somerset 2^nd XI and desperate to play for Devon and wanted to score as many runs as I could,” said Small.
“Opening the batting for Exmouth gave me the opportunity and I took it.”
Nothing came of Somerset and as far as Devon was concerned Small never really got established in either the 50-over or two-day sides.
The late Peter Roebuck was captain at the time Small was at his Premier peak and had a winning combination that didn’t include him.
Small played 18 Minor Counties games, six in the KO Cup and twice in the NatWest Trophy.
“I wanted to play and did get some chances, but always knew where I stood,” said Small, who appeared in the 1995 play-off final at Worcester, which Devon won.
“Peter Roebuck said he wanted five batsmen in the side and I was the sixth on the list.
“I had some good days with Devon, especially the one at Sidmouth when I got a bowl and took six for 37 against Berkshire.
“There are young lads growing up at Sandford who don’t realise I ever bowled at all!”
Small played in good company at Sidmouth, where the side he was in won six consecutive Premier crown and eight in total between 1990-1999. Torquay denied them in 1996 and 1997.
Devon record breaker Nick Folland was a team-mate – his 10,000 runs for Devon is unlikely ever to be passed – and so was Tim Lester.
Lester, who joined Exmouth from Sidmouth, played for the England Amateur XI and Oxfordshire and had an un-matched appetite for runs.
He hated batting practice though, as Small remembers from an episode on an Exmouth training night.
“Tim went in the nets against John Rhodes and Mark Woodman, who were both in the Devon side at the time, and they both got him out with their first balls,” said Small.
“Tim claimed he couldn’t see the ball as it was coming out a shadow in the dressing room doorway and insisted on turning the net to face the other way.
“Next ball he was ‘out’ again – and that was that. He stormed off, threw his kit in the car and we didn’t see him in the nets again that season.
“He still managed to score 764 runs and was not out five times.”
For a club cricketer Small has had an eventful career, which includes Premier and A Division winner’s medals, Devon Cups, a Minor Counties final and an appearance at Lord’s with Hursley Park in the Rothmans Village Cup final.
Among the other highlights was a run to the semi-finals of the Cockspur National Cup in 2001, when Exmouth were finally put out by Eastbourne.
“We played some big games on big grounds in front of big crowds – it was fantastic,” said Small.
You play against a lot of good cricketers over a 20-year career –and Small has had some real ding-dong battles with bowlers fast and slow.
“The fastest I faced in the Devon League were Andre Van Troost of Somerset when he was helping Seaton and a guy called Tim Bower at Torquay.
“Van Troost was sharp and I remember one game when he was at one end and Jason Kerr (also Somerset) was at the other.
“I got 90 that day, which against bowling of that quality was very rewarding.
“Bower was a fine bowler and when he chose to bowl quick he really put the wind-up you.
“I always enjoyed the test against the fastest bowling, finding out if you were up to it or not.”
Small also enjoyed a friendly rivalry with Torquay opening bowler Ian Baker, who famously went a calendar year without taking a Premier wicket.
Curiously, Baker’s last wicket before the drought was Small, as was the wicket that ended it.
“We had many battles and I always looked forward to them,” said Small.
“Ian Baker represented everything that is right about cricket and the way it should be played.
“On the field he fumed and cursed sometimes as he wanted to win –and put everything into doing so.
“Of the field he would be the first to come over for a chat and a beer once the game was over. “
Small had some duels with spinners as well, notably his future Sandford team-mate Richard Coupe.
“A lot of spinners have a annoyed me over the years – and he was certainly one of them,” said Small.
“Richard knew how to slow batsmen down and always said once he saw me start sweeping him it wouldn’t be long before he won that particular encounter.”