ONE of PCH cricket’s favourite sons Jamie Tudor played game number 300 for his club last Saturday.
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The 38-year-old has taken the field for all three grades for PCH and hasn’t missed a season of cricket since he lined up his first delivery at the age of seven.
He earned his first senior start with PCH when he was only 14 and also played representative cricket for Singleton in all divisions of the juniors and seniors where his ability as an opening pace bowler stood out.
Some of the memorable highlights for Tudor are being selected in a Newcastle regional team that toured England for four weeks when he was 15 and the three-in-a-row PCH premiership years in the late 1990s.
He said some new players joined the club in the late 90s but the team was very close, which was integral to their success.
Now the captain of PCH’s third grade side, Tudor has the role of leading a group of youngsters, many of whom he has coached over the years in the Singleton district competition.
“It’s great seeing these kids who once upon a time could barely throw the ball down the pitch now being successful in the seniors,” he said.
Some of Tudor’s early coaches included well-known local cricketing greats such as Terry Langdon, Ray Langdon, Mark Jordan and David Croft.
He said some of the best advice he’s gotten from those mentors was that cricket can be fickle.
“You might be having a bad run of games and think it will go on forever but things can turn around quickly,” he said.
“The lesson was to keep grounded, don’t get too excited when you’re
winning or too low when the going is tough.”
Out on the field, Tudor said some of the best he’s played with are Steve Edwards, Ian Neely and Gary Maskey.
“They were all different players; Edwards was fun to play with because he loved his cricket and that rubbed off on the team, Neely was a well-travelled cricketer who just got on with the
game while Maskey was incredibly competitive and cunning,” he told The Argus.
And, as long as his body holds up, Tudor has no intention of quitting
cricket anytime soon.
Tomorrow, in first grade, PCH meets JPC at Howe Park, Creeks and Valley go into battle at Cook Park 3 and Glendon have the bye.