Oh for the green, green grass of home
Old Boys’ English import Paul Summerskill has one simple wish while playing club cricket in Manawatu.
Summerskill is with Old Boys for the one-day competition and before he heads off travelling around New Zealand, he wants to play on grass just once.
Poor early-season weather in Manawatu has meant four rounds of the club competition has been cancelled, including the past three weeks in a row, and when they have played it has been on artificial wickets, rather than on grass.
So for someone from England, where they don’t have artificial wickets, playing on them has been a new experience for Summerskill.
Summerskill, 23, played club cricket at Botany Bay in London with Old Boys and Manawatu allrounder Tim Richards last year and the pair got on well.
So when Summerskill wanted to travel the world, he used cricket as an excuse and ended up in Manawatu as a warmup before he sees more of New Zealand after Christmas. He is a design engineer for an oil pipeline company and designs barrells.
In the limited chances he’s had to play, Summerskill has been a handy pickup for Old Boys, scoring 36, 70 and 119 in the three games so far.
He said club cricket in Manawatu was a similar level to where he plays in England.
‘‘It’s hard to compare because of the pitches, obviously we’re on artificial. When the [Manawatu] reps are back it’s pretty similar.
‘‘You’ve got some good players in the reps over here and we’ve got some good players in our league back home.’’
He was enjoying his time with the Old Boys lads and said coming off the English season had helped his form.
Summerskill is usually a wicketkeeper and had come over to New Zealand with the idea of not keeping at all.
But because Old Boys have been a few bowlers short, regular gloveman Bryce Grant has been bowling and Summerskill has been behind the stumps, where he has proved to be more than capable.
Against United earlier in the season Summerskill took three stumpings and four catches for seven dismissals in the match.