Exclusive Interview - Andy Brassington

He is a busy man. His charity Walkers and Talkers was acclaimed by the ECB and goes from success to success. Set up during Covid, it was an opportunity for people to get out of the house and re-engage with life during that lonely isolation. What started in Bristol, the meetings which involve a walk around the ground followed by a different guest speaker, has moved on to Taunton, Worcester, Cardiff and recently launched at Chester-le-Street. Derby is next on the list with a Walkers and Talkers planned to start in May.

“I owe everything to Gloucestershire”, says the former gloveman who arrived in Bristol after a two week trial in 1972. “This lad who came down from Stoke is still here 53 years later and it has allowed me a platform for my business, well a platform in life really. My whole family are ingrained in the club – my two daughters and my wife love cricket.” You never knew that Stoke-on-Trent was such a hotbed for professional cricketers until you speak with the man everyone in Bristol knows as Brassy. Bob Taylor, Brian Crump, Phil Bainbridge, John and David Steele, James and Tom Taylor, Jeremy Snape and Dominic Cork are just a handful of those from the Potteries who have made their way into the first-class game. It was a leg side stumping off an opening bowler for Staffordshire against Bristol Schoolboys in 1972 that alerted Gloucestershire to this young Stokie in the game. He was invited for a trial and his net lasted for twenty minutes. “I kept for 10 minutes, batted for 5 and they told me to get changed. I thought I had blown it but they offered me a three-year deal”.

It was a career that lasted until 1988, which saw silverware won at Lord’s in 1973 and 1977. Brassy was lucky enough to play with some of the greats. The two Pakistanis – Sadiq Mohammed and Zaheer Abbas - spring to mind and Brassington says they were vastly different as individuals. “Z was a Prince. A class act on and off the field, whereas Sadiq was Pakistan’s answer to Arthur Daley. In Sadiq’s benefit year, he was touting bats around the pubs in Bristol which were allegedly autographed. He had signed them all himself and even misspelt some of the names. He could play though and was a real grafter. Z batted like he was as an individual and Sadiq batted how he was”, in reference to the fighting qualities of Mohammed. Courtney Walsh was another. With 500 plus Test wickets, there is no need to justify the big Jamaican’s pedigree. “He was a master of his trade, with some of the greatest skills ever. He really was a gentle giant though”.

However, we asked Brassington if he could only pick one overseas player who would it be? Quick as a shot, he came back with Mike Procter. “He was world class. The word competitor isn’t a big enough word to use about him, we all wanted to be Proccie. When we used to play at Cheltenham there were kids having a knock on the outfield at lunch. They wanted to be us but we all wanted to be Proccie. He led from the front and regularly played through pain”, before adding the caveat, “Besides Zaheer ran me out for 22 at Hove one year and I didn’t get to 22 many times. He was a dreadful runner. I joined him when he had 199 at The Oval once and he had one over left, facing Robin Jackman. I knew what he was going to do and lo and behold, he hit the first one to a fielder and ran. Jim Foat says he once told him when I say yes it means no and vice versa. It proved very confusing down at Canterbury one year for poor old Foaty”.

As for Gloucestershire’s poor start to the season, Brassington has sympathy. “It is disappointing but was always going to be a tough season with the departures last year. The lads will be disappointed but you have to stick together in times like these and ride it through as a team. It isn’t easy and you have people taking the piss. I played in some poor sides when Proccie left and it isn’t much fun but you do come out of it. They should have won the last game against Lancashire. It was great to see young Tommy Boorman get his chance and I thought the boys buckled down. Matt Prior once said that proper players graft when out of nick. They don’t just try and flash a quick 20 or 30. It is like when the economy is in recession, you have to work twice as hard”.

It is a mantra why Andy Brassington has been successful in business, in cricket and in his charity. At Gloucestershire we are lucky that a leg side stumping in county youth cricket has led to him living his life in Bristol. This son of Stoke is now more a son of Stoke Gifford.