Paul Evans – Anson’s Most Complete Player – By Greg Pearce

Every team that I played for in my career also included Paul Evans. He features in all of my cricket memories from the age of 11 to my retirement at 31.

I think that we wore 7 different team badges together across the years, but the most games and enjoyment came from our time at Anson.

A true all-rounder

Paul was a true all-rounder and is the nearest to having equal talent in batting, bowling and fielding, out of all of the players that I played with. Paul’s real strength however was batting. He could play every shot in the book but, as is his character, never neglected his responsibility, by doing anything other than putting the team first. A lovely example of this was Paul blocking out against Waltham Cross Rosedale until the draw was safe with one ball to go. He then proceeded to dance down the wicket and hit the bowler for 6.

For Paul’s bowling, see my last entry on Bowling on a Sunday.

Until his eyes started to go, Paul was also a great fielder. He was a must to have at cover and had some of the safest hands that I have seen. He also was equally adept at picking up and throwing at the stumps. Skills that were severely lacking in my time at the club. Paul however did have one weakness and that was wicket keeping. I still remember playing for our school and for some reason, Paul took the gloves. The ball went out to the fielder who threw it back in. Paul tripped over the stumps and ended up in a heap of wood, metal springs and wicket keeping gear on the floor. He was far too valuable to be standing behind the stumps anyway.

A captain’s dream

Paul was a captain’s dream as I knew that whatever job I need doing, he would add class to the role. I needed Paul to bowl for me at the expense of batting for a lot of the time and he never complained. It was a comforting thought to know that I had an opening batsman by trade, coming in at number 6 or 7, to sure up any sort of collapse.

One of the main roles of a captain is to find out what makes people tick. Some people need to be told how good they are or taken down a peg or two. I found that the way to get the best out of Paul was to make him angry. If you told him that a batsman had said something about him, suddenly the speed of the balls being bowled would go up 5 mph. He was also far less likely to get out, if the fielding side had upset him in some way. He would double down twice as hard, in order to prove his point.

Essex Schools’ cup final

I did however, see Paul outclassed once. Gaynes (a comprehensive school from Upminster) made it to the final of the Essex Schools Cup in 1997. Gaynes beat some good sides including private schools to reach that stage of the competition. But then we came up against a certain Andrew McGarry (Essex and England U19s) in the final. Even at 15, McGarry was rapid. Paul was on his way back to the pavilion after a few balls from Mr McGarry and I was the first one to meet him as he went up the steps. ‘What happened?’ I enquired. “It would help if I could see it!” Paul retorted.

The scorecard says that Gaynes didn’t lose by many. Looking back, this was because McGarry bowled spin for the last 6 overs of his 8 over spell! Paul was my Vice-Captain for years and his advice was invaluable. He has a real cricket brain but also would talk me down from my hatred of certain clubs. I had a tendency to take things like clubs putting out first team players against us and rude oppositions personally. Paul would remind me that I was putting far more thought into this than they had.

Very little he couldn’t do

Paul never put himself forward as a captain for the teams that we played for and I think on reflection he probably made the right choice in not doing so. This left him able to focus solely on his game. I have known Paul for many years and know that he would probably have gotten frustrated at having to lead and would have spent most of his weekends working on a stress induced stomach ulcer…..

Paul Evans’ statistics for the club at the time of writing are: 296 matches played, 3567 runs scored including 2 100s and 446 wickets at 17.49. His runs total would be at least double that, if he had batted in his proper position for the whole time.

When I speak with Paul now, he tells me how the brain is still thinking batsmen out, but the body can’t do what it used to. Age comes to us all. Paul will always have the knowledge though, that in his pomp, there was very little that he couldn’t do on a cricket field.