FOR an Australian cricketer there are not many more satisfying feelings than getting the better of an English rival.
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It is something which Bathurst talent Max Hope had planned to be currently be doing as a member of the Brondesbury Cricket Club.
But instead of flying out to London last Monday ahead of what would have been his second season playing in the Middlesex County Cricket League, Hope is still in Bathurst.
Like so many other sporting talents across the globe, the coronavirus pandemic has forced Hope to change his plans.
Now not only is Hope unsure if the Middlesex league will go ahead this season, but if he can get to England to play if it does given restrictions on international travel.
"There's the potential that if the restrictions were to ease by the first week of August, that's when I could potentially get over there if I was allowed to," he said.
"About three weeks ago I was going to try and get over there as quick as I could, get myself over there in case this shut down did happen.
"But the flights were all booked and I couldn't get over there. It's actually probably turned out to be a bit of a blessing in disguise because I wouldn't have been able to do any work over there and I would have been in lock down by myself."
Hope said his Brondesbury captain reported the Middlesex board was considering a number of options, including a nine-round competition over six weeks.
He would love to be there if that went ahead to continue his association with the English club.
"I was introduced to the captain of Brondesbury via a Sydney Uni guy called Dave Miller, he had gone over and played in 2013 and obviously had the relationship and connection there," Hope explained.
"I expressed an interest to him at the end of 2018 that I would like to head over and he put me in touch.
"We had a couple of conversations and we all seemed to be in agreeance about what they wanted to get out of me and what I wanted to get out of the whole situation and we went from there."
Hope's first season with the club was a success, particularly in terms of his batting performances.
He did take time to adjust to the English conditions, but went on to score 628 runs across 14 games at an average of 52.33.
He finished not out on four occasions, his best score an unbeaten 109. That was one of two centuries for the Rugby Union Cricket Club graduate.
Hope was also involved with two of the side's best partnerships - a 179-run stand against Winchmore Hill and 176-run effort against Eastcote.
"It was a bizarre season. At the start of the year I kept getting myself out stumped, I just kept literally running at spinners," he said.
"They had to sit me down and say 'Mate can you pull you head in? You do this dead-set every single week.'
"Once I figured out a bit of a game plan, because obviously the conditions are so different over there, I stuck to it and I had a great run towards the back end of the year.
"I scored a couple of hundreds and it was good fun. It was nice to contribute when there's that expectation of being the overseas player.
"Our tail was a genuine tail, so there was a bit of an expectation on myself and our captain. If we didn't make the runs a lot of the time then our team might have been in a sticky situation, but luckily enough we managed to do it on most occasions."
I scored a couple of hundreds and it was good fun. It was nice to contribute when there's that expectation of being the overseas player.
- Max Hope
While Hope has also bowled plenty of overs of off-spin during his cricketing career, he admitted he "got the yips" with that aspect of his game in England.
Hope said the lacquer on the English Duke ball compared to the Kookaburras used in Australia, plus sharpness of the seam, made it difficult for him to find grip.
The weather did not help either.
"I kept cutting the inside of my left index finger where I grip the ball. So every time I'd bowl, blood would start pissing out and then I couldn't bowl because I was trying to hold it differently," Hope said.
"Actually the first day I played over there, I was waiting at the bus stop I sent a screenshot of the weather to Dad saying it felt like three degrees.
"So as I tried to grip the ball in my first over, we'd lost the toss and bowled first in that trial game, I was like 'I can't move my fingers, I can't even remotely get them around the ball, let alone grip it.'
"That might have been a bad omen I think," he added with a laugh.
READ MORE: The best BOIDC players from season 2019-20
While Hope did not find the success with the ball he would have liked, he still did a handy job for his team.
He bowled 57 overs, of which 10 were maidens, for the season and claimed nine wickets at an average of 25.11.
"I really struggled to hold the ball and bowl it properly so I didn't bowl as well as I, or they, would have liked. I'd obviously had that at the forefront of my mind for heading back this year," he said.
"I still bowled okay, but we had a number of good spinners in our team including a bloke who's now 50 but he dominates whenever he plays. So I just wasn't really needed to be honest."
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Though Brondesbury did not go on to win its division, Hope's side did enough to earn promotion to the premier league draw.
The Bathurst talent played an important role in seeing that happen and it helped him score an invite to return this season.
"We needed to win all six of our last games and we managed to do that. That was when I performed relatively well and from there they were happy to have me back," Hope said.
"It was a nice feeling as obviously you don't want to go over there and be a bit of a flop as the overseas player. To get asked back was a nice privilege and honour."
While it remains to be seen if Hope does venture to England for another stint with Brondesbury, he still plans to play club cricket for Sydney University in the NSW Premier Cricket competition.
