Kenneth Ian Pert

Player Information

Kenneth Ian Pert... WEED

There are obvious exceptions, but the general rule is that exceptional sportsmen have an edge to their character. A quality needed that sets them apart from the nice guys. This rule of thumb is especially true when it comes to wicketkeepers, at the very least most have a line of abuse they direct at batsmen as a matter of course. Kenneth Ian Pert is an exception, a top-class wicketkeeper and a hard-hitting batsman and a genuinely nice guy. Not only an outstanding cricketer and a good sportsman, but tight as a duck's in the bar! No doubt that he genuinely played the game in a proper, good natured manner. And for one of life's more moderate drinkers, he always sat with the opposition after the game for an hour or so and socialised in the time-honoured way we did back then.
In 1973, our first season of league cricket and only Weed and myself were regulars in a mixed bag of the has beens and the never likely to be. We limped along, at times I called on Weed to bowl which he did with alarming success. In one tied game he took 9 and only missed out on all 10 because I took the tenth when an incompetent batsman decided to sit on his own stumps. Over the next five years when we needed a bowler, he never let us down, taking 91 wickets at 11 apiece.
Ian is a pretty shrewd operator when odds are stuck under his nose. But unwisely persuaded by Ken (the psycho) Duckett into a race around the boundary edge, Ian fit as a butcher's whippet and Duckett overweight, a glass in one hand and a roll up in the other. No contest you might think, Weed did, despite the big man negotiating yards for years, or more likely kilo's for yards. Twenty yards difference at the start, all the smart money was still on the whippet.
He never got close, Duckett came around the last bend like a rocket propelled upright freezer. He still had time to roll a fag before Ian finished. I recall the above incident because it was the only time in living memory that Ian lost out on a financial deal
We'll all see Weed now, welded to his outfield mower or more worryingly with a hammer in his hand, doing something vital in his own inimitable way. But never forget, first and foremost he was totally committed to the club and his village (still is) for over 60 years and a match winning cricketer for more than 25 years.