Oy. He was a Civil Service player. Please stop claiming him as your own.

I’m joking, of course, but we as a club claim the tiniest bit of credit. His figures at all levels were astonishing, and there can be no doubt that he would have played at test level, but also would have exceeded at it.

I met him on a few occasions on his returns to Ireland. He would meet up with former ESB colleagues to eat in the canteen. Often convivial, sometimes truculent about the new forms of the game. It is difficult – actually impossible -to think of a better Civil Service member. I had to get that in. Sorry.

In terms of Halls of Fame he should have been number one. The statistics at all levels speak loudly.

I wish I could have faced him. I’d have lasted a few deliveries – as long as at took him to work out my curious technique. Our next engagement would be much shorter. He nearly spat out his food in laughter. He agreed and said he would loved to have bowled at me. Not merely as a wicket but for fun. He could be waspish, but funny. When i suggested that he might not need so many short legs in place,, and that I liked to pick up anything on the legside and that i had put more than a couple in hospital he said that it would be a challenge he would face the next day if I wished. The redoutable Willie Webster laughed at me. It it was a great moment in my cricket life. I wasn’t serious, of course, but it was fun to be put in my correct place. I was in cricket royalty, and I include Willie in that company.