It was 1988 and I was covering Workington Town for the local papers when Maurice Bamford was the club coach.
I can’t for the life of me remember the particular story, but Maurice had taken exception to something I had written in the paper and wanted me banned from Derwent Park.
The editor backed me and consequently there were no stories written about Town in the evening or weekly papers.
It was approaching the Sunday game at home and I was told by my editor to go down to the ground, get myself into the press box and carry on as if nothing had happened.
I was a little apprehensive but duly turned up, nothing was said and did what I would normally do – watched the game, made my notes, enjoyed a decent Town performance and afterwards went up into the old squash club bar.
Coaches, players and officials went in there afterwards and you were able to mix and get follow-up stories.
I was at the bar when the chairman Kevan Gorge came in. Now Kevan (who went to the same junior school at Ellenborough as I did, and we were of an age) had reluctantly gone along with the ban that Maurice had asked for.
Kevan came and stood with me at the bar, we had a brief conversation about the game and then suddenly from the other side of him an extended arm and hand appeared. It was Maurice. We shook hands – without a word being said – but then for 20 minutes I had the longest, and thoroughly enjoyable conversation with him – about cricket!
In later years, when he retired from coaching, he worked in the media and I met up a couple of times with him at Batley and Dewsbury and we always had a good catch-up – about cricket!
Now interestingly following my ban, and meeting other journalists around the rugby league circuit, word had obviously got round that I had been banned by Maurice Bamford.
I was asked on more than on one occasion if I had got the tie yet. What tie would that be?
It’s the BBB tie – Banned by Bamford – as apparently quite a number of hacks had received similar treatment and had decided to mark the event accordingly.
I never got one, for despite his gruff and dour personality, and the ban, I quite liked Maurice – and his knowledge and love of cricket swung it for me.
