HEART & SOLE

David was Scotland’s rugby hero against England in 1990, now his son Chris aims to do the same in cricket tomorrow

FIRST came the slow march. Then the fire and brimstone. And by the end, England were “sent homeward tae think again”.

If Chris Sole can inspire something similar to his dad David’s 1990 Grand Slam rugby heroics tomorrow, then Scotland will have another memorable sporting moment to savour.

Unlike rugby and football, Scotland have never beaten England at cricket in a rivalry that has only been going since 2008.

But that will not matter a jot to those brought up on the tradition of sporting battle between two nations that share so much history and for Chris, the chance to add to his family’s sporting heritage.

“Every international that I get to play in is special,” said seam bowler Sole (right), 24. “But there is obviously a little bit more there when it comes to the English due to the history of the countries.

“I do think their No.1 ranking puts even more on it, and the fact is any team on their day can upset a higherranked team.

“We’ve seen it before with upsets from Ireland and the Netherlands and maybe it is our turn to do the same. I was only a twinkle in dad’s eye back in 1990, but we’ve always known through other people saying, ‘Ah, what your dad did back then was incredible’, and you always see footage from the Calcutta Cup game.

“We’ve managed to paint our own pictures without being there ourselves and that is one of Scotland’s more historic days in sport.”

The ‘we’ refers to Chris’ brother Tom, who also plays cricket for Scotland but is missing this game with a broken ankle. They have actually not managed to play together for their country yet. And in the crowd with mum and dad will be older brother Jamie, a one-time professional rugby player with Newcastle Falcons, and sister Gemma, a Commonwealth Games netball player. Not bad from one gene pool. “I’m immensely proud of all the kids,” said Sole senior. “They have all achieved an awful lot themselves, but like any parent even if they hadn’t played any sport I’d still be proud of them.

“Whatever sport it is, the Scotland-england rivalry always has an interesting nuance to it and there is that bit of an edge that doesn’t exist in other games. “England are the No.1 ODI side in the world and they’ll be coming up as firm favourites, but Scotland thrive on being the underdogs whether it is rugby, cricket or whatever.”