Matthew Siddall is enjoying the season of his life and bowling his way into the record books.
The 24-year-old left-arm spinner took 14 wickets for Cumbria in this week’s National Counties Championship game with Buckinghamshire – eight in the first innings and six in the second.
Now there is still some discussion as to whether that is the best match-haul by a Cumberland/Cumbria bowler and records from 1986 are being sought to confirm.
Chris Gore, statistician and editor of the Cumbria County Club’s excellent yearbook, is inclined to believe that Dave Helliwell’s 14-92 at Carlisle in that year was recorded in error and should have been 13-92.
But what isn’t in doubt is that Sids is the first Cumbrian bowler since the county club was formed in 1955, who has taken six five fors in a season. Indeed he will be the first to take 10 wickets in a match over three successive games!
His 8-88 in the first innings put him seventh in the best bowling figures in an innings.
But Siddall, a popular figure in the Cumbria dressing room, is not one to crow about records.
He said: “At the end of the day it was nice to take the wickets but it’s a team game and the fact that we lost was very disappointing.”
Because the team ethic is certainly important to Siddall enjoying his cricket.
“They are a terrific bunch of lads with Cumbria and I really enjoy playing for the county.
“They have made me feel at home from the start and I couldn’t wish to play with a better group. The team spirit is phenomenal and it’s a pleasure to turn out for Cumbria,” he stresses.
Which is probably why he didn’t take much persuading to try his luck in the Cumbria League with Cockermouth when county colleague and good pal Sam Sharp asked him about playing at Sandair.
“I think I was ready for a new challenge after a number of years with my home town club Blackpool.
“I see myself as a work in progress and to bowl on different wickets and against different batsmen appealed.
“I couldn’t have picked a better club to join. It’s a proper family club who have made me and my dad very welcome. I am thoroughly enjoying my first season.
“It’s different in that I was used to bowling 15 overs in Northern League matches for Blackpool, whereas it’s only ten in Cumbria.
“But I feel as though the move has been beneficial and it’s worked out well.”
Siddall, a self-employed painter and decorator in Blackpool, usually travels up on a Friday, stays with his mate Sam Sharp overnight and the Saturday, before travelling home on the Sunday.
“It’s handy, too, when there’s a Cumbria game on the Sunday because I can just link up with the lads and travel all the way with them,” he says.
As a teenager Siddall spent a winter in Australia and he believes that helped his game no end.
He says: “Ever since I came back from Australia I have played a different game. Confidence has been the key.
“My time out in Australia taught me to become mentally tougher. Every time I stepped out on to the pitch out there I got sledged because I was English, so that has made me mentally tough and taught me to bowl faster.
“The pitches out there are a lot flatter, so it taught me to bowl a bit quicker.”
He came through the ranks with Blackpool at Stanley Park, after joining at the age of 12.
“I was just into football at that age and I hadn’t even seen cricket on the tele. But then a mate invited me to a cricket session and I was hooked from the start.
“I still enjoyed my football but when I was about 16 I was getting pushed off the ball too easily, because I’m slight, so that’s when I concentrated on my cricket,” he says.
“I started off bowling left arm leg breaks but it’s a tough discipline so I switched to off breaks, spending as much time as I could in the nets.
“Richard Gleeson was a coach at Blackpool and he’s been an inspiration, so pleased he’s had a good county career and earned England recognition,” he says.
Siddall would like nothing better than to sign off with honours for Cockermouth in the Cumbria League’s Premier Division and, of course, Cumbria in the NCCA Trophy.
Any more records along the way won’t mean half as much as winning something with his team-mates at Cockermouth and Cumbria.
