Rogers looking forward to meeting old friends at DSCT lunch in Exeter
SOMERSET captain Chris Rogers is looking forward to catching up with old friends when he travels back to Exeter to speak at a charity lunch.
The former Australian opener – he played in 25 Tests before retiring from international cricket last year – is the VIP speaker at a lunch organised on behalf of the David Shepherd Cricket Trust.
The Trust pumps money into youth cricket in Devon – between £20-25,000 a year – and remembers former player and Test match umpire David Shepherd.
Shepherd started out with North Devon in the 1950s and moved to Gloucestershire in 1965 after training as a teacher at St Luke’s College in Exeter in case pro-cricket didn’t work out.
Shepherd went on to play 14 seasons for Gloucestershire before taking umpiring. Officiated in nearly 100 Tests and three Wold Cup finals before retiring in 2005. He died in late 2009.
Money raised by the dinner will help fund Trust projects that range from introducing seven and eight year olds to softball to expert coaching for high-performance candidates in the Devon Lions programme.
Rogers had three seasons with North Devon at the start of his career before a summer with Exeter just as he was on the brink of breaking into the First Class game.
The 38-year-old who is originally from Sydney, got to know Shepherd well and said he was pleased to help a charity set up in his memory.
“I am looking forward to seeing many old friends and helping a cause that is obviously doing a great job for youth cricket in Devon,” said Rogers.
“My time in Devon taught me a lot about cricket and also about life in general.
“It is nice for me to come back and do something to help young cricketers in Devon.”
Rogers was only 18 when he arrived in Devon for the first time in 1996 to play a season Premier season for North Devon.
The left-hander scored 506 runs in his first season at Instow and was invited back in 1997 for a second summer with dramatic results.
Rogers clouted five Premier Division tons for North Devon and finished with a whopping 1,273 runs at an average in the 60s.
Only three other batsman have made more than a thousand runs in a Premier Division season. They are, Barton’s Agha Zahid 1,206 (1982) and 1,040 (1983), Exmouth’s Adrian Small with 1025 in 1995 and Andy Pugh, who made 1,129 for Brixham (1992) and 1,003 for Barton (1998). No one has made more than Rogers did.
There was one more season with North Devon – 762 runs – then a break until 2002 when Rogers joined Exeter. He signed-in with 154 against Torquay on the opening day of the season and went on to make another 600-plus Premier runs.
Rogers said playing in Devon was part of his cricket education that helped make him a First Class player.
“A lot of the young guys my age in Australia went to Academies and learned cricket there,” said Rogers.
“I came to Devon and got just as much out of it if not more.”
Rogers’ landlord while he played for Exeter was Glenn Lammonby, a fellow Australian and future Exeter captain who is now chairman of selectors at the County Ground.
Glenn’s son Tom is on the Academy staff at Taunton and played a 2nd XI game with Rogers earlier in the season.
“It was great to play a game with a talented, young cricketer and anything I can do to help him make his way in the game I will do,” said Rogers.
Lammonby is one of hundreds of Devon youngsters to benefit from coaching programmes supported by the David Shepherd Cricket Trust.
The fund-raising lunch is taking place at the Exeter Golf & Country Club on Friday, August 19 (12.30pm). Tickets priced at £35 each can be bought online through the charity website www.dsct111.org.uk
