England Player & Coach, Umpire, Sky Sports
A delicious Pie and Pea supper was served as the aperitif to David ‘Bumble’ Lloyd being interviewed by Jonathan Doidge, Broadcast Journalist. The function room at Lees Hall GC was packed for this event.
The anticipation of having the well-loved, entertaining cricket celebrity in our midst had gathered for weeks, and we were rewarded with an evening that was everything we could have wished for.
After a lifetime in cricket, latterly as an idiosyncratic and amusing television commentator, the fund of stories to draw on was immense. Any doubt about the validity of the old adage ‘it’s the way you tell ‘em’ is firmly put to bed when ‘Bumble’ picks up the microphone.
Despite the painful effects of a recent DIY injury – and a protracted drive down from his home north of York – he soldiered on and delivered as only he can; the Lancashire accent, the nostalgia, the breadth of his cricket experience and the sheer joy of sharing the stories shone through.
Later, additional questions from the floor produced colourful anecdotes ‘off script’ and inevitably there were ones many of us were familiar with. But we really wanted to hear them again, purely because David’s real strength is as a raconteur.
Anyone is capable of telling a story that is funny, but few can do so over and over again in a way that provokes such an instinctive, warm response when it’s been heard before. What a national treasure he is …
*A longer feature will appear in our Yearbook.