Bicknell Stands Up To Challenge At Belvoir

44 year-old former Surrey, Nottinghamshire and England A batsman Darren Bicknell is still strutting his stuff in club cricket, coming off a magnificent 174 for Belvoir against Welbeck Colliery in the Nottinghamshire Premier League last weekend.

Bicknell’s aging body may well be slowing down but his blade is certainly still churning out the runs as he sits in fourth place on the run charts with 493 runs in just eight innings at an average of 82.17.

Belvoir, Bicknell’s club, gained promotion to the Premier League in 2010 after winning the South Nottinghamshire Premier League. The promotion capped off a wonderful few years for the club after playing village cricket only a few years previous.

“What’s happened at Belvoir is the club has been promoted three times in the last four or five years so that the players have come into the Premier League as virtual village cricketers,” Bicknell told CricHQ.com.

In 2008, Bicknell signed on as director for the newly-formed Belvoir Castle Cricket Trust which was designed to “develop a social centre for young rural communities, from school to young families; to give an introduction to under-privileged children from the UK and abroad to cricket and rural traditions; and to encourage full involvement of all the family in the sport.”

As part of his contract, he plays and coaches the Belvoir first team and he has witnessed some encouraging progress.

“They’ve improved each year but this year they’ve been put under pressure every weekend that they’ve never faced before. As batsmen they’re used to getting a four ball an over to put away and you just don’t get as many boundary opportunities in the Premier League. The run rate stagnates, they’re unable to get enough singles and they panic, so it is a real challenge.”

“Bowling wise, guys are used to getting away with the odd loose one and now they’re being hit to the boundary. It’s just all about dealing with pressure which they aren’t used to. If they can get used to it, find better ways of dealing with it then we should be away. The guys are learning and it’s just a continual process of developing.”

It certainly has been a testing time for the club, sitting in 11th place after 12 rounds of the 12 team League, and Bicknell hopes they can somehow find a way to string some victories together and keep their Premier League dream alive.

“A lot of the lads don’t live very close to the club because where we’re based is out in the sticks, so when it comes to training we do struggle with practice. It’s a frustration not to be able to practice very often and it’s certainly something that needs to be looked at once we review the season because if you don’t practice much you can’t expect to get any better.

“I do find it frustrating and at times I’ve let it get the better of me but I can’t get it out of my head to accept that these guys are trying hard. I’m still used to playing in a team where a lot of the chances in the field are taken, whether it be catches or run outs. It’s a mindset for me and I have to be slightly more relaxed when I play now but when they’re trying hard, and I’m trying as hard as I’ve ever tried, and you see mistakes being made it does get frustrating.”

Batting at number three, Bicknell is forced to use all of his experience to both encourage those players around him as well as find some structure for the innings, whether they be setting a total or chasing.

“Whenever I play I try to adjust to a role whether it be batting for the entire innings or increase the scoring rate, if that’s necessary. At times it’s difficult because you get caught between knowing you can’t get out and wanting to play your own way. A few weeks ago against Caythorpe we were only chasing 207 and in hindsight we went far too slowly at the start of the innings. We lost a couple of wickets early on and we just felt we couldn’t get out so we tried to stick it out and thought we’d be able to pick it up at the back end but we left ourselves too much.”

The tall left-handed stroke-maker began his professional career at Surrey back in 1987 and played there for 13 seasons before transferring north to Nottinghamshire where he finished his decorated career.

His best season came in 1991 when he plundered 1888 runs at 47.20 with five hundreds and, all up, he had nine Championship seasons where he passed 1000 runs.

It is, however, the Championship success with Nottinghamshire in 2005 which Bicknell enjoyed the most, and, why not when you score 1222 runs at 50.91?

“I’ve been involved in a couple of Championship victories which is definitely a highlight but your first professional contract is certainly at the top of the list, I think. I’ve been on a few England A tours which is a huge accolade and honour. I went on tour when I was 20/21 and I wish I was 26/27 because I would’ve been a bit more mature and grown up."

"The County Championship win in 2005 was fantastic really, especially to have risen from Division Two the previous year. I was able to contribute heavily as well which always makes it more enjoyable too.”

Looking ahead, Bicknell won’t be holding his breath to see whether his team stays up or not as he is more focused on the development of the juniors within the club set up and he knows that, given time, the youngsters will develop and the club should have a better opportunity to sustain its Premier status.

“From a club point of view the aim is to try and stay in the Premier League which will be very difficult considering we probably need another three victories after we’ve only had one in the first 12 matches at the half-way point.”

“I suspect it might be a difficult task but we’ve won our last match so you never know. I think once the season is over we need to sit down and think about what we need to do with our players and work out how we’re going to develop or maybe even fast-track a few of our younger guys into the first team.”

“I’m still enjoying my cricket but as you get older it gets harder and harder. I’ll reassess things at the end of the year and it’s hard on the family too because my son is getting older and playing a lot more cricket himself now which means I don’t get to watch him play which is a shame.”

Credit CricHQ.com