Fitting finale to a great career

PLENTY TO SHOUT ABOUT . . . Mel Whittle ended a 49-year playing career on a high.

TO many of his team-mates, he was simply known as “legend.”

Opposition batsmen were not quite so complimentary — for the obvious motive of self-preservation — but there was never any shortage of respect for a seam and swing bowler whose career spanned five decades.

At the age of 63, Oldham Cricket Club stalwart Mel Whittle has called time on his 49-year association with league cricket.

But, as a personality used to taking centre stage, he bowed out with a true sense of theatre.

His final competitive match against Middleton in the Lake Garage CLL at the Pollards attracted huge interest.

Not only was this the last match in which local cricket lovers could see Whittle in action, but he went into the game needing just five more wickets to make it 100 for the season.

Fingernails were bitten as overs ran out, but Whittle kept a cool head and finally reached his landmark when Danny Royle sliced him to point.

There could hardly have been a more fitting end to a cricketing career which had seen Whittle make his debut for Crompton at the age of 14 and go on to represent many clubs as amateur and professional in a variety of leagues.

However, Whittle will always be associated with the CLL and Oldham and Crompton in particular.

In recent seasons, he has led Oldham’s attempts to keep afloat despite severe financial problems.

And he has agreed to continue as cricket chairman at the Pollards as Oldham plan for the future.

He will also stay on as groundsman, a post he has held since 1984.

Bearing in mind his achievements and contribution to the local cricket scene, it is hardly surprising that Whittle has been nominated for the sports performer section in the Pride In Oldham awards.

“I’m surprised, but pleased to have been nominated,” he said.

“I have had a long career, but I have always been fairly fit because of my job as a landscape gardener and I was always able to recover quickly enough to play golf on a Monday morning despite the number of overs I bowled at the weekend!”

Whittle plans to play plenty more rounds of golf, particular with son Tom, and if the competitive streak which he displayed on the cricket pitch is replicated on the links, then Whittle jnr had better beware!