Pettman has part to play in S&B’s season
CHRIS Cunningham may have left it late to strengthen his side in advance of the start of the Love Lane Liverpool Competition programme next month but no one can argue his signings have not been spectacular.
Towards the end of January, Southport and Birkdale’s skipper recruited the Indian firstclass batsman Aryan Juyal, and this week it was announced that Cunningham’s attack might be augmented by the current Nottinghamshire cricketer, Toby Pettman.
However, Juyal’s signing is on a quite different basis from that of the 6ft 7ins Pettman.
Whereas the Indian will be at Trafalgar Road for the vast majority of the summer, the new signing’s availability will be dependent on his commitments at Nottinghamshire, for whom he signed a second two-year contract early last autumn.
To be clear: Pettman will play any club cricket he can manage at S&B in 2023 but how many Liverpool Competition games he manages to fit in will hang on Nottinghamshire’s first and second team fixtures and how much medium-fast bowling he does during the week.
If he has been worked hard, the Trent Bridge coaches may order him to take a break and no one should blame them.
But if Pettman can play as few as four or five matches, S&B officials will be well pleased, for there is no doubt about their new recruit’s pedigree or his wholehearted approach to his cricket.
Having played in the same
Tonbridge first eleven as the England batsman, Zak Crawley, Pettman then won four cricket Blues at Oxford University. A student at Jesus College, he was also awarded a double-first in Classics, which should make for some interesting conversations in S&B’s home dressing room this summer.
Despite the impact of Covid on professional sport and a job opportunity away from cricket, Pettman was offered a contract for 2021 at Trent Bridge and he first played at Trafalgar Road for Nottinghamshire’s second team against Lancashire in June that year.
His initial liking for the ground was strengthened by a second visit last April and also by a couple of rounds at Royal Birkdale in the company of S&B chairman, Andrew Carney, and his son, the first-team wicketkeeper, Jack.
The new signing has now taken 42 wickets in first-class cricket and went on loan last summer to both Derbyshire and Kent, whose players appreciated both his talent and his appetite for hard work.
This winter, Pettman played grade cricket for Prospect CC in Adelaide and S&B’s first serious contact with him regarding this season was a long-distance mobile phone call.
At that point, the chances of him playing Liverpool Competition cricket appeared slim. They have improved over the past few months and the prospect of two first-class cricketers representing the club and passing on their knowledge to younger players has been enough to considerable excitement among Trafalgar Road officials.*