Phil Simmons at Grace Road

Pleasant memories can suddenly resurface too.

Listening to Test Match Special this afternoon I remembered seeing Phil Simmons, now manager of the West Indies team, playing for Leicestershire playing at Grace Road. That dates the memory to between 1994 and 1998.

Simmons was one of a group of Leicestershire players practising their slip catching before play. One chance went right through him and I was impressed that, rather than look around for someone less important to do it for him, he jogged to the boundary to fetch the ball.

It had arrived right in front of me, and as he retrieved it Simmons raised his eyes in an exaggerated way as if to say "Fancy missing a sitter like that."

I have also have pleasant memories of poor Chris Lewis at Grace Road. You don't often see an England player in the nets with a queue of boys waiting to bowl to him.