Sparsholt Vice Chairman Richard Edwards (left) and club Secretary Tony Edwards (right) present Colin with his season ticket.

Sparsholt Cricket Club gave Colin Lovegrove, possibly their most loyal supporter, an unexpected birthday present. The club had a collection to buy ex-player Lovegrove a season ticket to watch Hampshire this year. “It was a nice gesture by the players to offer to pay for my season ticket to Hampshire” said Colin, who started playing for the club in 1971. “I was playing cricket in Southampton at the time” he explained. “A very good friend of mine said ‘I’ve found this wonderful club, why don’t you come up and see’. So I came up to see and ever since then I’ve been playing cricket for Sparsholt.”

Injury shortened Colin’s playing career, however he has stayed with the club for over 40 years in total. “I played a lot of football when I was young I had a problem with my hamstrings. Unfortunately when I was 35 they went three or four times. I thought that I’d like to play more but it was happening too many times so I packed it up. Afterwards I just became a helper: picking people up, doing bar work and cutting the grass”.

Colin has always been prepared to go the extra mile for the club. “We had a lad called Jerry Frith, who played for us when we reached the National Village quarter final. He came from Guernsey” he recalled. “I remember sitting on the quay at Weymouth at one o’clock in the morning waiting for the ferry to come in to pick him up and take him to his parents in Romsey so that he could play for us on the Sunday. I must be mad I suppose!”

A supporter for 35 years, Colin has seen some outstanding players play for Sparsholt. “At Sparsholt cricket club we’ve had some wonderful players. There was a chap that played for us in the mid-eighties called Paul Davis who was absolutely outstanding and we also had probably the best batsman who played outside county cricket called Tim Richings.”

“The present day side is quite a young side but there are some really talented players. The last two or three years we had an Australian lad called Dan Payne. When he first came in he was very good but last year he was exceptional, he scored more runs in the league than anyone. We have another lad coming this year so we hope he’s a good player. It will be interesting to see him play.”

Much has changed in the forty-three years that Colin has been involved with the club. “When I first started, you just paid your money to play and that was it. The dressing rooms were very basic. You had to be careful when you put your feet down because you’d put your feet through the ground in some parts. What they have now compared to what we played in is luxurious. We never had showers, and now we’ve got a pool table and a bar in there. When we used to play we had to go down the pub to have a drink.” Since then, Sparsholt have built a new pavilion in 1980, which has since been extended on multiple occasions.  

“Now they have a professional ground with a brand new electronic scoreboard which is great. It can be done using a laptop. It’s all computerised. When I played the players used to take it in turns doing a bit of scoring. When I started playing, we only played friendlies, there was no league. Now we have six or seven Colts teams, a first, second and third Saturday team and we have a Sunday eleven as well.”

Despite the team that he played in boasting some star batsmen, Colin believes that the current crop of players are a stronger team. “It would be close, I must admit, but I think this side has far more potential than what we had. They can all bat; all of them are capable of scoring runs. I think overall, apart from one or two exceptional players from the early eighties, the team today is one of the best sides I’ve seen for Sparsholt.”

As you might expect, the club is a big part of Colin’s life. “I look forward to coming up here every Saturday to watch them play and when possible going away with them when I can”. Despite not playing, Colin is seen as very much a part of the team. “I always have a bit of banter with them” he said, “even though I’m considerably older than them I do get on pretty well with the players. I am a pensioner and sadly these days it’s not easy to make ends meet so what they did for me was a nice gesture and it’s greatly appreciated”.

Written by Tom Moody