April cricket still better than cleaning windows, says Lucas

By Paul Bolton

It has been wet and unseasonably cold for most of the first month of the new season but you won’t find Worcestershire seamer David Lucas complaining about the weather.

The 33-year-old left-armer, a winter recruit from Northamptonshire, spends his winters outdoors cleaning windows and conservatories in his native Nottingham having set up his own business during a year out of first-class cricket six years ago.

Lucas was released by Yorkshire at the end of the 2005 season and decided to set up the cleaning business while he was playing Minor Counties cricket for Cambridgeshire.

Northamptonshire gave Lucas another chance in county cricket in 2007 but he has gone back to window cleaning in the winter months and his day job has helped him to enjoy and appreciate his cricket more.

“Having a year out of the game was the best thing that happened to me,” Lucas said. “Maybe I took things for granted a bit when I was with Nottinghamshire and Yorkshire. But having the year out and doing various other things and then coming back into county cricket helps you to appreciate what you have.

“Every day I am back in cricket I look forward to – even training days. I try to play with a smile on my face. There are hard days in the field when you don’t take many wickets  but you know that you could be something else, something less enjoyable.”

Alan Richardson, Lucas’s new new ball partner at Worcestershire, also spent time out of county cricket when he was released by Derbyshire in 1995 and spent time working as a landscape gardener and fitting golf spikes before he was given a second chance by Warwickshire.

Richardson’s career has prospered since he joined Worcestershire from Middlesex two years ago and Lucas, who signed a three year deal when he left Northamptonshire, hopes that the move to New Road will have a similar effect on him.

“I’m stoked about getting a three-year contract at my age,” Lucas added. “The success Alan Richardson has had since he came to Worcestershire was a big factor in my decision.

“He played all 16 County Championship games last year and he bowled the most number of overs he had ever bowled. I also worked with Ross Dewar, our fitness coach, at Northamptonshire when I enjoyed my best-ever season so that was another factor.”


Date: 30/04/2012 23:46:39 by Paul Bolton
In: Worcestershire | Today | Northamptonshire |