Hero's welcome likely for White Fern Sara McGlashan

HAMISH BIDWELL

11 August 07

The venues and codes might change, but the arrival of the visiting team rarely differs.

Off the bus and in they march, headphones on and eyes down, looking every inch like a group under siege. This is enemy territory they're on and the safety of the dressing room can't come soon enough.

Five thousand people are expected to pack the Bath Cricket Club's ground tomorrow and Tuesday, when New Zealand play England in two Twenty20 women's internationals in the spa town. By women's standards they're massive crowds and sure to be slightly intimidating for the White Ferns.

All except one, who, despite having never been there before, is likely to be greeted like a long-lost friend. Sara McGlashan won't be known by sight, but everyone in the ground will know her by name, explains David Black.

"I always talked Sara up to people at the club, telling them that she was a brilliant fielder, who could bat and keep wicket. She's going to have a big reputation to live up to, but she'll handle it no problem at all,'' said Black, who was director of cricket at Bath in 2001, 2002 and 2005.

"The fact that she knows Hannah Lloyd will help and they'll all welcome her with open arms.''

In part because of her surname and Black's recommendation. But mostly due to Black himself. It's he who has fostered a unique relationship between the Harvey's Cornwall and Bath clubs, which will hopefully prosper for many years to come.

"It was pure co-incidence that things started off. I'd been over there and then, in 2003, we (Cornwall) decided we wanted an English player to boost the ranks of our women's team,'' Black said.

"I'd coached the Bath team and knew their captain, Hannah Lloyd, very well. In the end she came out and played for our team and CD (Central Districts) as well. Joe Dorgan, from Bath, came out to the Bracewell Academy in Masterton the next season and when he'd finished there, he came up and played half a dozen games for our premier team.

"Then in 2005 Bath contacted me and said `we want an overseas player. Can you suggest anyone?' I mentioned Pete McGlashan and he'd been signed up within a couple of weeks. He and I both went that year and we actually lived together.

"Early that season I was taking the drinks out and, as I came off, there were two people standing on the sideline and one was Lincoln Reid, who played for Cornwall in the mid-90s.

"He said `are you David Black?' I said `yeah'. He said `I can't believe this. Is that Pete McGlashan out there?' And I said `yeah'. He said `I've just come down to have a look and see if I can get a game of social cricket and the first two people I see are Kiwis from Cornwall'.

"I said `if you look over there, you'll see a girl who played for Cornwall, CD and New Zealand, and is now in the Bath team, called Erin McDonald'. So the four of us were all there that year which, as you'll remember, was the year of the British Lions tour to New Zealand.

"The club put on breakfasts for the test matches and all the talk over there was that the Lions would thump us. The four of us all went along and we sat near the back door, because we'd decided if the All Blacks lost we didn't want to be stuck with a hundred gloating Englishmen.

"Pete was a star over there, no two ways about it, and now his sister will playing at the club. The connection between the two clubs is unique and, I guess, instigated by me. The Cornwall club is well- known at Bath and people will immediately recognise the name and tell you it's the club of Blacky and Glash, as they called him over there.

"I wouldn't mind betting that Pete will go back there at some stage and I may do as well. So I'm hoping that Sara will do well there and get some runs and, who knows, they may well invite her back for a summer.''