CRICKET: Dream job for a man who loves the game

A TEAM of naughty schoolboy footballers cowered in their dressing room.

Their pre-match trip to the pub had been rumbled, the game against a Huddersfield amateur outfit had been lost and Sir was about to vent his spleen.

But the subsequent dressing down turned out to be about as scary as an episode of Buffy The Vampire Slayer.

The schoolmaster in question was Dave Edmundson, now one of the key figures in Lancashire's cricket revolution.

And, 15 years on, he is still more comfortable dangling a carrot than brandishing a stick.

Edmundson took on the dual roles of Lancashire County Cricket Club cricket secretary and Lancashire Cricket Board secretary at an unenviously turbulent time. The local leagues, particularly at this end of the county, were in uproar over plans for a county-imposed Premier League.

A few years down the line and progress has been sketchy, the future remains cloudy.

But lessons have been learned and Edmundson clearly regrets some of the early posturing.

"I feel I antagonised people because I have strident views about it and they were directly opposed to others.

"I have taken a much lower profile in the Premier League. There is more dialogue now. "We were not trying to impose a Premier League at all costs. Certainly I have learned a great deal over the three years and I think the leagues have as well," he said.

This public stance of conciliation is more in keeping with his physical education teaching methods during 16 years at Blackburn's Queen Elizabeth's Grammar School.

Edmundson was not as inspirational as some, yet was wholly approachable -chummy enough with his charges to chuckle at playground tags such as 'Jasper Carrott on Stilts' while retaining a necessary level of respect.

But he always hoped that the grass was greener on some other side.

"I always aimed that I would get out of teaching when I was about 50 and aim for a freelance career in the media.

"I didn't want to be that ageing PE teacher who was still refereeing a third year house match on Lammack in the freezing cold rain," he said.

A somewhat drunken 'I can do that' conversation with Radio Lancashire sports producer Dave Jones produced his biggest break.

His first assignment was a rugby union fixture between Orrell and Exeter, when Edmundson did not even know which team was which, never mind which radio van socket to use.

And although he also covered the local football sides, cricket was his first love and he quickly created his own niche and introduced the magazine Cricket Extra slot.

His Tales from the Tearoom became cult listening in cricket circles and celebrities such as Gary Lineker, Michael Parkinson and Will Carling were willing interviewees. In fact, there was only one refusal, from a certain miserable Yorkshireman called Geoff Boycott.

Edmundson was an efficient operator and became a regular contributor on the national BBC network.

So his name was familiar in and around Old Trafford when his application for his current job landed on their mat.

For the cricket lover, it appears the dream job.

But, while his office overlooks the players when the rain is not belting down, Edmundson can only occasionally lift his gaze from a computer screen and catch a glimpse of the cricket.

So what does a cricket secretary do?

Edmundson works closely with coach Dav Whatmore, seconds coach Peter Sleep and cricket development manager John Stanworth in a close-knit Gang of Four at the engine room of the Old Trafford machinery.

He added: "In some ways I do have a managerial role with the players off the field. Everything up to the boundary edge or the dressing room door, I have a quite significant management influence.

"I am operating as a sort of Jim'll or Dave'll Fix It and encourage the players that if they want to become a rocket scientist they have enough time on their hands to do that.

"It's crucial that these players, who are the crown jewels of the game, network and promote the game for future generations and that again is very much part of my job." That is where the Premier League issue overlaps and Edmundson's deep-seated roots in the region, and its cricket folklore, probably make the conflict even more difficult to stomach on a personal level.

His dad, a purchasing officer at Allspeeds, Clayton-le-Moors, played for Great Harwood in the Ribblesdale League and did not have to drag young Dave around the grounds from an early age.

He made his first team debut in 1966 at the age of 14 for the first team at Rolls Royce - leg before for nought, for the record - under the captaincy of Don Ormerod.

"I expected a bit of an arm round the shoulder and kid gloves treatment.

"But it was 'Right, you're opening the batting, get out there' and I didn't do very well.

"Don was a big influence on my early cricketing career and he brought a Lancashire League application to the Ribblesdale League.

"During the late 60s and early 70s, the Ribblesdale League improved its standards.

"You got people like Don and better pros came into the league like Bob Leatherbarrow at Blackburn Northern and we had Keith Barker.

"There were overseas players like Roger Woolley at Great Harwood and Graham Mansfield at Blackburn Northern," said Edmundson, who captained Great Harwood from 1974-76 while teaching at the Derby School in Bury.

"The sad thing is that, having written the History of the Lancashire League and knowing exactly what's involved with it, as a spectator sport it is not attracting players into their games. "I have kids of 21 and 18 who wouldn't dream of going to watch a Lancashire League game.

"That profile of Lancashire League spectators is probably like championship spectators here. It's a hanging on to old values.

"We need to address the grass roots problem and try to ensure that youngsters who maybe will go to watch Lancashire League games will be attracted to play the game.

"Premier League it might be but I am sure those senior leagues in your area know full well that things are changing and have to be improved because otherwise it will become a bit of a veterans type of game.

"There has to be an improvement in standards and it's a case of evolution not revolution."

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