Hugo back for Moor

HEYSIDE CC, champions of Division Two: Joe Warburton (chairman of Heyside CC, back row, left), Danny Robertson, Lee Watkinson, James Davis, Carl Newton, Luke Bentley, Jack Warburton, Eddie Bayliss (chairman of the Saddleworth League). James Cummins (front row, left), Matthew Robinson, Corey Heaton (mascot), Tony Heaton (captain), James Lord. Not pictured Phillip Taylor and Paul Walsh.

CRICKET: ROELOF Hugo is swapping Heyside for Moorside in 2012 — and will then call it quits in the professional ranks.

The 28-year-old wicketkeeper-batsman will spend one more season as a paid player before returning home to South Africa full-time.

Hugo is moving to pastures new in the Saddleworth and District Cricket League after rattling up more than 5,000 runs and 13 centuries in five campaigns at Heyside.

He said: “My first game in the Saddleworth League was on the Moorside track.

“I managed to score some runs and I told them that day I would come back and finish my career there, and it seems strange that’s what I’m going to do.

“I’m going to take a couple of months off first, spend time with my family and come back strong next season.

“I’ve bought into a little business back home and we’ll see how that goes. It’s basically pre-employment screening.

“I've done this (professional cricketer) for the last 10 years.

“I was down south for a year or two and then I got injured. I’ve also played in Holland for a club called Kampong in Utrecht.”

Hugo has taken great delight in helping to develop the Heyside’s junior members.

But he also has one disappointment — not winning the league title.

He added: “You come over here to play cricket, to play with the youngsters and that’s what I’ve managed to do.

“Some of the guys who I coached when I first came over, the likes of Danny Robinson and Matthew Robinson, I’ve played with in the last couple of games and that was a good feeling.

“We’ve had couple of victories in the Twenty20, but obviously the goal was to win the league and that’s why I kept coming back.

“I couldn’t manage to do that, but hopefully they’ll get somebody decent next year.”