CRICKET’S DAVY SCANLON BOWLS OVER COMMUNITY WITH HIS COOKING...
WE are asking our sporting personalities how they are dealing with action coming to a halt because of the coronavirus pandemic and how it has affected their daily lives. Today we talk to Bready captain and North West Cricket Schools and Club Participation Officer, Davy Scanlon (above)
Q How are you keeping?
A: I’m keeping well and just trying to keep busy with work around the house and helping in the community. I find keeping myself busy distracts me from the current situation and the fact that I’m really missing sport during the pandemic.
Q How have you been affected?
A: It’s affecting both cricket and football. Our football league season has just been cancelled and our cricket season has yet to start. As a sociable person you miss the interaction with team-mates, supporters, friends and family, and the chance to train and play sport. I also do loads of sports coaching, as a hobby and as my job with the North West Cricket Union, so I am really missing getting out and getting involved. My role has changed a little now with no cricket coaching or school sessions but I’m busy working on our plans for next year and some new cricket development projects. My wife, Amanda, works as a housekeeper in Outpatients in Altnagelvin Hospital, so the highlight of my day is driving her to and from work, to bring some sort of normality to daily life.
Q How are you keeping fit?
A: Along with landscaping my garden in the evenings, which is quite therapeutic, I try to complete some online fitness sessions each week as well as completing various runs around Bready. We’ve also been given a Strength and Conditioning programme to follow for the North West Warriors. I have been able to gather up quite a bit of fitness equipment over the years, so I make sure and change up every session to keep myself motivated to complete each one. I have also been able to entice Amanda into completing some sessions which helps.
Q How are you maintaining morale, yours and the team?
A: Keeping in touch with friends and team-mates throughout this, via messaging and video calls. It is a different way of communicating but it is keeping us in contact and counting down the days to we get playing again. Every weekend we hold a team quiz night and it’s always a laugh to watch team-mates get simple questions wrong, when put under a little pressure.
Q Where are you drawing your personal strength from now?
A: From seeing my wife and other NHS workers, as well as everyone else working on the front line, keeping us safe and businesses open which makes it easy for others to continue in what their everyday life has become. I am involved in the Cricketing Cooks at Bready Cricket Club, who have been cooking and providing a cooked meal every Sunday for the past seven weeks and for the foreseeable future. To date we have provided over 700 meals in the community, cooked in the club’s kitchen every Sunday morning at 9am. The response has been excellent and very overwhelming that the club is able to provide something so meaningful to the elderly and vulnerable in our community.
Q Can you recommend a book, film or box set you think stay at home sports fans might like?
A: I am not really someone who would sit down and watch a film or read a book. I would be more inclined to watch any type of sport that is being shown. Obviously with no live sport, I have been able to rewatch Ireland’s first Test match and there are other excellent talk shows on Sky Sports at the minute. I’ve also started to watch ‘Gangs of London’ which has been excellent so far. One film I have watched and found really funny and inspiring was ‘Peanut Butter Falcon’ which involved some WWE and had a great story line.
Q What life lessons are you learning from this?
A: Apart from the cooking lessons I am getting each Sunday morning, I have been able to take stock of where I am at the minute, both in a playing capacity and life in general. With being so busy in the past, I had not been able to put a lot of things into perspective. In this lockdown I have been able to review what is important and what makes me happy in everyday life, as well as things that I need to do differently.
Q What is the first thing you will do when this is all over?
A: After taking Amanda out for a meal, I would get involved in any game of cricket I can find followed by a few beers in Bready CC. I have really missed socialising in groups of friends and playing sport, as well as my job coaching kids to play and enjoy cricket.
Q And your message to sports fans?
A: Sit tight, this will blow over. If we all follow the guidelines, we will be outside playing again soon. When we do get back, make sure and follow as many rules as you can so that everyone can continue to play. Make sure to look after yourself as this will help keep everyone around you safe and well.