Michael Porter announces resignation as Bashley (Rydal) Cricket Club first team captain
MICHAEL Porter has announced he is standing down as captain of the Bashley (Rydal) first team after six-and-a-half years at the helm.
The ECB Southern Premier Division’s longest serving skipper, he led the New Forest club to the Premier title in 2019, having finished runners-up two seasons earlier.
“It was an incredibly difficult decision to make, but for work reasons I’ve relocated from my Parley home to Bridgwater which makes it nigh impossible to carry out all the duties a Southern League captain has to undertake,” he said.
“As anyone who has captained sides at Premier League level will tell you, it’s far from tossing a coin on a Saturday afternoon and running the game,” the top-order batsman continued.
“It’s a really hands-on role, with meetings to attend, selection calls to make and all the admin – and that’s on top of training and then skippering in a competitive environment every Satur-day.”
During his successful stint Bashley also won the 50-over pennant and twice had the best record in all-day ‘time’ cricket (2016 and 2019).
The 26-year-old hasn’t exactly been idle in that time, scoring more than 4,000 Premier Division runs, including three hundreds and over 25 scores of 50 or more.
“I’ve been fortunate to play for a wonderful club at Bashley, one that boasts the best batting track and outfield, and is fantastically well organised. The lads – 62 of them have played under me – have always provided great support and given me total backing.
“I will forever be grateful to Bashley chairman John Neal for installing the trust in me as a 20-year old to lead a club which has five league teams, an adult playing squad of well over 60 players and engaged some tip-top overseas players over the years.
“We finished a disappointing fourth last season, missing Brad Currie and Tom Friend for large chunks of the season, but I’m sure Bashley will continue to go from strength to strength, irrespective of who takes over from me.”
