DOUBLE CROSS
Meet Kate the fearsome bowler and dad David the West Ham legend...
Kate Cross jumps at the chance to tell a story of the first time she played cricket at Lancashire club Heywood with her ex-footballer father David.
‘I was hoping this would come up,’ said the england fast bowler.
‘When I was about 14 I was batting above Dad in the third team and he gave me a pep talk when he came in. He said, “this lad’s bowling dibbly-dobblys, don’t get out to him”.
‘so I’m at the non-striker’s end, Dad’s come in and I’ve never seen a worse shot. this lad was about 13 and 4ft and he’s bowled this half-tracker and Dad’s gone to smack him…’
Former West Ham striker David takes up the tale. ‘It caught the top of my bat and lobbed up for an easy catch. Kate was rolling about laughing.’
Mum Christine remembers it well: ‘In that game all the old guys were saying, “Heywood must be struggling, they’ve got a girl playing”. Kate got four wickets and they were like, “oh”.’
then there was the time Kate made her mark in the Heywood first team alongside brother Bobby.
‘Bobby fielded at mid-off so he could talk to me and make sure I wasn’t nervous. this guy chipped the ball up, the easiest catch, but Bobby spilled it. there’s a picture of him with his head in his hands on the deck.’
Big brother winces. ‘she was the first girl to play in the league in 123 years and it would have been her first wicket.
‘a week after, we went to a West Ham reunion for the 1980 Fa Cup. Ben shepherd, a big West Ham fan, was hosting and when I was introduced, he asked if I played,’ said Bobby, a goodenough batsman to spend two years on the Lancashire staff.
‘When I mentioned Kate he said, “You’re not the guy who dropped a catch off his sister, are you?” We’d travelled to London and I heard that!’
It is a typical exchange in a morning with an extraordinary family. David, so fearsome a striker that West Ham fans dubbed him ‘ Psycho’, actually prefers cricket — and his family are steeped in it.
Completing the set as all five family members joined
Sportsmail was middle child Jenny, who was forced to keep wicket in the garden while her brother batted and her sister bowled.
Jenny is now physio at women’s super League club Lancashire thunder. Bobby is club manager — ‘and dad is the bus driver,’ said Kate, at 26 the youngest of the three Cross children.
the Crosses pondered a lifetime’s involvement in cricket. ‘I played here as a kid and made the first team by 15,’ said David, trim and fit at 67. ‘It was suggested it might be for me but I wasn’t good enough. there was no money in cricket then either. I got a chance to join rochdale — and didn’t play cricket again for 20 years.’ By that time son Bobby was making a name for himself. ‘Between us we have scored 17,743 runs for the first team. I’ve got 400 of them!’ said David. ‘I finished cricket when I was 18 and started playing again when I was 39 and in those 20 years I hadn’t moved on. I was playing like you did in the 1960s.’ Kate is happy to poke fun at her dad again. ‘It was more your kit they were laughing at,’ she said. Christine had little option but to get involved. ‘I thought cricket was boring, but then I started going out with David. When Bobby started playing I got more involved, scoring, making teas — I even played a game last year — in the Prosecco League.’ It is Kate who made the biggest impression, becoming one of the first english women professionals. ‘Cricket was all I ever knew,’ she said. ‘My mates were lads and it was natural for me to play with them. they are still some of my best friends.’ But there have been downs as well as ups. Kate has not played for england for two years even though she was in the squad that toured India last winter. Now, for the first time, one of the biggest reasons for that becomes clear. ‘Kate’s had anxiety and stress issues over the last two years and that cost her a place,’ said her father.
‘Mental health is massive now in sport and Kate and sarah taylor are close and both suffered from the same thing but never talked to one another about it. sarah’s has been made public but Kate’s issues have gone under the radar.’
Kate added: ‘I’m comfortable talking about it now and, like sarah, if it helps someone, I’m happy. I had no idea sarah was going through it and she had no idea I was, yet we were best friends.
‘I get a lot of messages on social media from people with similar issues and that can be inspiring.
‘the era Dad was playing in, if ever anyone had an injury it was, “Get ice on it”. that’s the mentality we all had growing up. I found it difficult initially to talk to Mum and Dad.
‘one of the positives is that as a family we’re all a lot closer because I’ve had to talk to them about what I was going through. Dad went through similar things as a footballer but they didn’t talk about it then.’
that is the cue to talk about David’s goalscoring in the 1970s and 80s. ‘the biggest thing that got me through a 20-year career was always thinking I might not be good enough,’ admitted David. ‘self-doubt drove me on — but I was always able to score goals.’
He scored 223 in 599 games for several clubs and it is at West Ham where he is remembered most fondly.
But the man sitting before me does not look that scary. Why Psycho? ‘It was a nickname with the West Ham fans,’ he said. ‘the players knew that wasn’t me. I just became that person on the field, that headcase. We played Cardiff one day and I was in the mix just before half-time, in a scuffle which you could get away with in those days, and I got booked. one of the West Ham fans right next to me said, “You’re a psycho, aren’t you?” I laughed and it stuck.
‘If one of our lads got kicked I was always first in to sort out the opposition player. It was ridiculous — if anyone wanted a fight with me now I’d be up the road faster than anyone could move!
‘It went back to the rochdale coach telling me I had to be a nasty piece of work when I was a kid. Centre halves were never going to hurt me and I didn’t mind getting hurt to score a goal.’
the superstitious David held a small metal pig for luck all through West Ham’s Fa Cup final win over arsenal in 1980 and passed it on to his children. Kate always carries the latest model.
Her sense of fun has been good for the women’s game. she attracted more than 51,000 views on Youtube of her car-pool karaoke with england team-mate alex Hartley, then inadvertently raised a smile by singing while a guest on a BBC news programme without realising her mic was still on. ‘they were debating Brexit but all they could hear was Kate singing adele,’ said David.
Last word to Kate, who this week missed out on selection for england’s squad to face south africa. ‘I do like to have fun but I know you need to be remembered for your cricket.
‘Mentally, I feel good and I’m bowling the best for a while so I’m hopeful of getting back in there. My family are always supporting me.’
they are an extraordinary cricketing family.