Shane Warne once famously made a comment that a coach was what you travelled to the game in. With that in mind, Hampshire’s cricketers definitely have a coach other than Giles White; a rather smart cream one with seats and wheels, which comes complete with a driver called Andy Lessells.

Andy has been driving the Hampshire players to away games for as long as his employer, Excelsior, have been providing the team with coaches. He is now the only driver who does the job, and his knowledge of finding the best ways in and out of cricket grounds around the country is becoming legendary. “There are still new grounds we haven’t been to” he told me, “but it does help when we go back to the same ones time and again.”

Over the course of a season the players cover many thousands of miles. “The longest away trip I’ve ever done with Hampshire when we had four days at Nottingham, then moved up to Durham after that. The coach is quite roomy; it’s an extra long coach but it only has 36 seats in so there’s space for tables – and a few home comforts. It’s been specially made for this sort of work. It’s got a granite worktop at the back, a fridge, a microwave, and the seats have been arranged to give the players maximum legroom.

“I didn’t know anything about cricket before I took this job but I’m getting into it. I wasn’t a great cricket fan to be honest, but I do enjoy it now – once you get involved you start taking notice. I get to watch quite a lot of it, in between doing other little jobs during the day; things like giving the coach a good clean, bringing score sheets and drinks if they want them. But they’re a pretty well organised lot so they don’t ask for much!”

The away trips always start from The Rose Bowl and, I’d always imagined, with a great deal of luggage. “I bring the coach up from Bournemouth and then we load up” Andy said. “There’s quite a lot of equipment they take with them, then there’s all the overnight bags and things like that. We usually make one stop on a trip, because I have to have a break by law, but we normally go straight to the ground for practice and afterwards to the hotel. Next day we’re at the ground half past eight or nine o’clock – and it can be seven or half past in the evening by the time we’re back at the hotel.”

I was interested to know if any of the players have trouble making the coach that early in the morning, but Andy was giving nothing away. “They’re very good time keepers” he told me. “If they say nine o’clock they usually mean nine o’clock and we’re nearly always away on time. They’re very professional. And very well behaved – a lot more so than other sportsmen, I’d say. They read or have a game of cards – they’re no problem at all.”

Andy has driven ice hockey and football teams, but admits that the Hampshire cricketers are his favourite. “They’re very nice guys and they’re all so polite. They always say good morning and they’ll have a conversation with you – I couldn’t fault any of them – every one of them’s very respectful and well behaved. They’re reasonably tidy too, and they get on with things themselves, like putting their own kit in and sorting it out.”

And is that any different if Hampshire have lost? “I think they’re more boisterous when they win and quieter when they lose – but they don’t lose, so it’s no problem!” Andy laughs. "It’s worse when we’ve had games when it’s rained all day so we’ve done nothing then come home again. But whatever happens there’s always a thank you at the end of the day, which is very nice.”
 

 

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