Richard 'Lords' it up!Every cricketer's dream is to play at Lords, the home of
international cricket but few outside the professional game achieve
it.
Every cricketer's dream is to play at Lords, the home of
international cricket but few outside the professional game achieve
it.One man who has achieved that dream is Richard Johnson, a
microbiologist employed by AstraZeneca R & D Charnwood, who, even better,
led his team to victory on the hallowed turf.Richard is captain of Elvaston Cricket Club's 1st XI which won
the final of the prestigious National Village Cricket Championship beating
Eversholt, the champions from Beds and Herts, by 16 runs in an action-packed
game.When Richard went out as one of Elvaston's opening pair, he was
just 33 runs short of his 1,000 runs for the season and he soon made up that
difference, striking the first ball soundly to the boundary for four and going
on to reach 40."It's a dream come true to play at Lords," he said. "Every
cricketer wants to play there and I am no different, wanting to do it since I
was a child. It was a wonderful day with an amazing atmosphere created by the
2,000 or so supporters of both teams - a great turn-out considering that
Elvaston has a population of just 300"To reach the final, Elvaston, which plays on a country estate
near Derby, won eight matches with Richard having some impressive batting
figures including a century and a 90. He admitted that a few tears were shed at
the result but fortunately, he said, he was wearing sunglasses. Ends
