In an article posted on the Cricinfo Website, host Siddhartha Talya held his regular show called Bowl at Boycs. Talya was speaking to Geoffrey Boycott from his house in Cape Town in South Africa.
Talya said let's start with our questions for today. The first one comes from Roger Sawh in Canada. He says: Greetings Geoffrey! Seeing that you had such a long career as an England international, you must have played many tour games against local sides as warm-ups for upcoming series. Have any of these games been particularly memorable? Have any players from them that didn't go on to the international arena remained in your memory?
Geoffrey Boycott said, Good question. Two players, really. One of them was in Bermuda's side. I was a young kid, I went with Yorkshire to America, Canada, and Bermuda in 1964. Yorkshire was very good then, with personalities like Brian Close, Freddie Trueman, Ray Illingworth - and we were the best side in England playing championship cricket.
A tour was organized. I was a young kid and went on it. We played against a guy called Clarence - I've forgotten his surname. Clarence, a tall, gangly left-arm spinner, almost like a faster version of Derek Underwood; he bowled cutters [Boycott was referring to Clarence Parfitt, who played against Garry Sobers in 1966]. We played some matches on matting - matting over concrete - and he was very, very difficult, he bowled it very quick. We even had Sobers guesting and playing for us, and even Garry thought he was a damn good player. Bermuda haven't gone much further and he [Clarence] didn't progress. In fact, I was there recently with MCC and people remembered him. I've forgotten his surname but he was very good.
