Flashback - Adam Dibble bowling for Somerset against Yorkshire in the 2011 season<br>credit: www.ppauk.com

By RICHARD WALSH

FORMER Somerset cricketer Adam Dibble has swapped playing cricket for life as an estate agent and is now back in Taunton.

The 26 year old was born in Exeter but lived and grew up in Sidmouth, where he appeared for the town club and played through the Devon age groups before joining the Somerset Academy.

Dibble, a fast bowler and hard-hitting, lower-order batsman, made his debut for the 2nd XI in 2008. A year later, when he graduated from the Academy, he was awarded a contract.

Adam Dibble - photo: www.ppauk.comDibble made his Championship debut against Nottinghamshire in July 2011 at Trent Bridge where he took one wicket in the first innings of a drawn game. When he batted he hit an unbeaten 39 off 51 balls.

Later that season Dibble enjoyed success playing for Somerset in the Champions League T20 out in India. Sadly he was dogged by injury and at the end of the 2015 season he was released.

During his career Dibble played in four First Class games in which he scored 84 runs with a best of 42 and claimed five wickets at an average of 41 with a best of three for 42.

Dibble also appeared in seven List A games, in which he claimed 11 wickets at an average of 26.82 two twenty20 matches, in which he claimed two wickets at 22.

“When I finished playing cricket in 2015 I had a couple of months to find my feet and decide what I wanted to do,” said Dibble.

“I then went and worked with my dad, who is also an estate agent before I came over to join Robert Cooney in Taunton in October 2016.

“We are really, really busy which is good news and have got a good share of the market locally so its something I am glad to be involved in.”

Dibble has got used to a different life style as he explained: “I got married in the October after I left Somerset and we had our first child in the April.

“We have got another one on the way and due to be born very shortly, so it has been very much all-change for me over the last couple of years.

“Since I have become a father I think that my perspective on life has changed and so have my priorities.

“You start living for a different reason and I love it and wouldn’t have it any other way.”

So what did Dibble consider to be the high spot of his time with Somerset?

“To have played in the last two games of the Champions League T20 out in India would be my highlight,” he said.

“I trained really hard out there and was bowling well in the nets and got the nod and went out and performed which was great.

“However, the overall experience was just unbelievable and guys who had been playing for a long time all said that was a highlight for them as well.

“It really was a high point for the club on the world stage and I was a part of it.

“My career was nothing to write home about and I struggled with injury and never really got going but to have spent seven years after leaving school experiencing nothing else but cricket was fantastic.

“So many of the things I did were very special and I wouldn’t have been able to do without the opportunity that Somerset gave me. I love looking back at it and remembering those days as well as looking forward.

“I don’t miss the cricket and it served its purpose in my life, but when my focus started to wane and I began to think of other things in the world I knew my time was up.

“It was a great few years and I loved every minute of my time with Somerset.”

Does he go down and catch up with the people he got to know during his years at Somerset?

“There was never any bitterness about me leaving because I was ready to go and now I am back working in Taunton I get back into see people I know,” said Dibble.

“Hopefully there might even be a way that I can combine my new business with my cricketing past.”

“It’s always good to go down and meet the people I know and relive some of the fond memories that I have from my time at the club.”

He added: “Now there are few old faces back in charge who I worked with a lot and already I have seen Sarge (Andy Hurry) who was the main man when I was there so I am guessing that I will be going in a bit more in 2018.”

Dibble has just returned for completing a charity walk with James Hildreth and another former player Mark Turner in aid of Children’s Hospice Southwest that raised in excess of £5,000.