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Why Overseas Players?
The past fifteen years or so have seen a steady stream of overseas visitors taking their place in Swindon's sides. The trend started when Paul Rignall spent a year in Perth and became friends with young quick bowler Neil Hancy. Neil fancied spending a year in England before settling down and arrived in Swindon the next summer.
The story has been repeated most years since then and the overseas visitors certainly provide an extra edge to the side and a fresh approach, particularly to training. These are not professional players but they are young and ambitious to improve their cricket by playing in England whilst at the same time being able to find enough temporary work to keep them in funds. Swindon has proved an excellent place for them to do both with a good standard of cricket at the Club and plenty of work opportunities in the town.
The links between Swindon and Perth have become stronger over the years and the Club are now in the process of establishing semi-formal links with Fremantle District Cricket Club, home of Joe Piromalli, Brett Johnson and Ryan Shuttleworth, who have all played in the town in the past. This winter even saw Ian Richardson making the reverse trip and sampling the delights of Fremantle while the rest of us shivered and suffered in England.
This year's overseas visitor is Steve Shuttleworth, twin brother of Ryan, who says his first objective is to get one up on his brother by scoring more runs than Ryan did last season. |
Neil Hancy
Neil was a 19 year old playing for Melville 2nds when he was persuaded by Swindon player Paul Rignall that he would enjoy spending the following summer in Swindon. He duly arrived and took the town and the cricket season by storm.
This is going back a few years as can be judged a) by the fact that you had to wear a tie to get into Vadims; and b) you had to go to Vadims because there really wasn't anywhere else much in the town! Neil had to borrow a tie and then begged someone to knot it for him; his only previous encounter with a tie had been at a family wedding when his father had dressed him. On the field he took a record 85 wickets breaking the record of Alan 'Father' Lenham.
These days Neil is running the leisure centre in the Melville District of Perth and now turns out for Melville 4ths, but he starred in the first team for years, up until the end of the 2000 season. |
Brett Johnson
Brett was playing for Claremont Nedlands when he first decided to make the trip to the UK and Swindon. His great friend Joe Piromalli came across that first year and they dominated Swindon cricket all season. Joe played for the GWR Club where he scored heavily, particularly off the back foot on their bouncy Shrivenham Road track. Brett also scored a heap of runs but he tended to favour the front foot, which stood him in good stead at the County Ground which traditionally offers less bounce.
Brett came back the following year and excelled himself by easily beating his previous year's tally. By the last game of the seaon he needed a handful of runs to beat the league record tally set by New Zealand opener Matthew Horne.
A sporting Malmesbury side agreed to start play in tricky conditions and 'Johnno' soon had enough runs at which point the sides left the field. It was a well-deserved record though, particularly as Brett scored his runs in three fewer games in what was a very rain-affected season.
By this time news of his feats had been broadcast far and wide and Brett was 'persuaded' to play for a little club in South West Wales the following year, replacing Vasbert Drakes. |
Herman Venter
'H' became a friend of Jon Lewis (Swindon, Gloucestershire and England 'A') when Jon was playing for the Wanderers Club in Johannesburg. At that time Herman was playing for Zoo Lake in Johannesburg. He came across as another young player looking to further his game in this country. His bowling could be awesome but he never really adjusted to the slow pitches here and tended to pitch too short. There were also some impressive batting performances and some stunning pick-ups in Route 66.
The first team picture below was taken in the 1998 season: (BACK) Tony Dale (umpire), Herman Venter, Derek Lewies, Jon Sumner, Brad Kretzmann, Dave Pike, Paul Rignall, Ian Titcombe (scorer); (FRONT) Neil Stoddard, Paul Stoddard, Randy Roze (captain), Craig Sansum, Dwain Winter. |  |
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Steve Shuttleworth
 Steve is another cricketing visitor from Fremantle. He arrived in the UK for a working holiday on 12th April 2001 and will be playing for Swindon during the 2001 season whilst working in the town. Steve is an aggressive bat who can also keep wicket. His main personal objective is to score more runs than his twin brother Ryan did last year. |
Ryan Shuttleworth
Weeks of rain greeted Ryan's arrival at the beginning of the 2000 season and it took the 23 year old opening bat some time to adjust to the slow wickets (and even slower opening attacks). Ryan opens the batting for Fremantle's 1st Grade side in Western Australia's premier club league and is trying to force his way into the State squad. He finished our English season with 530 league runs for Swindon at an average of 40, and was awarded the Club's Batsman of the Year trophy (sorry that you never saw it Ryan! - and are these figures correct?). He missed out against some of the weaker sides, but something must have worked as he returned to Fremantle for an outstanding 2000/2001 season. By the end of it he had 700 runs for Fremantle at an average of 45, and he has now been invited to join the Western Australian squad for their pre-season training in a few months time. Well done Shutzy! |
Brad Kretzmann
 Brad must be wondering whether he was going to make this list - last for now but not least comes Mr Kretzmann. Somehow always associated with the 10 Goddard sofa, which now has new owners (Steve Shutz and Aleesha). Our sources are still out scouring for information from Brad's old contacts from Route 66, Longs, McKenzies, Desperate & Divorced, Mission, PoNaNa and even Vadims. Suffice it to say that Bradley started his years at Swindon with a ton in his first innings and was still scoring heavily at the end of the 2000 season, his last before he departed to start a University degree course in Australia (another Perth link!). Brad came to Swindon as a 19 year old from the Wanderers club in Johannesburg. His initial contact with the town was Jon Lewis, who played for Wanderers during the 1997/98 South African season. Jon commandeered Brad as his chauffeur in Jo'burg, and Brad decided to make the trip to Swindon next summer. He liked the place so much he became a fixture for the next few years at Swindon Cricket Club, North Wilts Hockey Club and even at Thames Water, whose Property Information section will never be the same, but whose phone bill must be lower now that he's gone. Brad was chosen as Swindon's Cricketer of The Year for the 2000 season, in which he scored more than 500 runs and took 21 wickets with his off-spin. He has now joined the Fremantle Club in Western Australia. |
Clint Mitchell
 Mitch pitched up part way through the 2000 season to say hi to Ryan Shutz for a few days and then stayed for the duration. League rules stopped him playing in the same Saturday league side as Ryan (but then who wants two Aussies in the side anyway). The second eleven were happy to put up with him, as long as they didn't have to shower at the same time. Another hit with the Swindon ladies with a marked preference for the D & D Library Bar. Fantastic left arm swing bowler and handy bat, which helped Swindon win the second team division title honours in 2000.
Photo shows Clint in the centre background, along with Alan Cock (left) and Corrianne Allen (right). |
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