Cricket is Kryptonite to ‘superhero’ Hunter

Fakenham chief is a non-runner in extreme event after he breaks finger dropping catch

No more heroes anymore. This week most of the news you will hear about Royal Ascot will be last-minute setbacks afflicting the favourites, but we have information of another non-runner.

David Hunter, chief executive at Fakenham, was due to have taken part in the Norfolk Super Hero challenge this weekend, in a two-man team with former trainer Nick Littmoden. The extreme endurance event based at Burnham Overy Staithe involves swimming a mile in the sea, paddling four miles in a two-man kayak, cycling 45 miles and finishing off with (or, rather, being finished off by) an eight-mile beach run concluding on the mudflats.

Both men are over 50, so they qualified for the ‘Zimmer section’ – aggregate age more than 100 – and they fancied their chances.

However it has all gone pearshaped for Hunter in the most unlikely of circumstances. Training complete, he was enjoying the bucolic setting of a local cricket match in what he considers the best way possible – watching from the boundary with a glass of Pinot in hand.

However, with 10 overs to go, another former trainer from those eastern flatlands, Matt Gingell, had to leave the field of play early. Searching for a fielding replacement, he alighted on Mr Fakenham.

Hunter survived 10 years in the 4th/7th Royal Dragoon Guards – no wars, though playing polo against the Jordanians came close to it, he says – and, concurrent with running Fakenham, 14 years as chef d’équipe of the British Paralympic dressage team, without so much as a scratch.

But the last time he had played cricket, 40 years previously, he had been daydreaming in the outfield – “asleep standing up” is how he described it – when a skied catch came his way, went straight through his hands and hit him on the head, knocking out what little sense it contained.

As you can imagine, he was called a “cretin” and all those other

He was given village cricket first aid – a pint of beer – but two days later took himself off to A&E

non-pc 1970s prep school terms of abuse and, as a consequence of the incident, his hatred of playing the nation’s summer game only deepened.

But in the belief that he would be pretty invisible deep in the outfield, Hunter graciously consented to fill the fielding gap in the closing overs.

However, at the crease was Fakenham’s new chairman, Adam Case, brother of Banbury trainer Ben and, with his eye very much in, he smote a ball in Hunter’s direction.

With the ball launched, Hunter had a déjà vu moment and, though he again got his mitts to it, he still managed the double whammy of stinging hands and dropped catch – to cheers from the boundary.

He was administered village cricket first aid – a pint of beer – but two days later took himself off to A&E, where a fractured finger was diagnosed.

The short-term consequence is that he is out of the Super Hero event. The long-term consequence is that nothing will ever persuade him to play cricket again.