Nigel Hill
Player Information
From a 16-year-old baby faced assassin, capable of batting top six in a strong Trinity League winning team, to the Greek god of his twenties, to the brick-built outhouse of his later years. Nigel was as complete an all-round cricketer as we've seen up at Challow. Fine batsman, ultra-correct to begin, then one of the most destructive of hitters. A bowler that always hit the bat hard, even off a few paces and even at the end when his knees were shot. Even then the strength in the shoulder hurried batsmen. All round fielder, arm like an Exocet in the deep and a safe slip catcher. When I compile my list of the top ten Challow innings, this will be in it. Nigel played one here and under pressure against Kimble who had a left arm spinner, Asian guy who took over 100 wickets in his two seasons with them. You could hear the ball fizzing from the pavilion (that's not the Kronenburg talking) and we were five down still needing over 100 with only 15/16 overs left. Shamefully I can't remember who his partner was, but gradually our opposition began to realise that just by batsmen remaining calm, batting the overs and running hard, the game was slipping away from them. And more than slip it did, a flurry of boundaries and game over.
The one thing for me that sums Nigel up, we were playing Kidlington in the semi-final of the Oxfordshire knockout, at this time they were strong, pouring money at players and we were defending a decent score. It was getting tight, and they'd brought a load of raucous supporters. Their best batsman hitting in the air towards this noisy rabble, Nigel running around the boundary took the catch right in front of them - pressure? Nope, I love it when opposition support suddenly goes quiet.
Gerald