5 Questions with Mark Maksic
(Originally posted April 2015)
How and when did you come to join Acton CC?
Well, like most enduring tales of love, everyday struggles, massive conflicts and triumph against the odds… There was this man in a pub.
In the mid 90’s I made Ian Reeve’s acquaintance through the attendance of various drinking establishments along Acton High street(The Shebeen at the back of The George and Dragon was a particular fave of mine) after Rangers games
Beefy knew my mate George and was always really sociable, so when a few years into knowing him - having played a couple of really shit work matches that sparked my interest - I heard he played cricket, it was only ever going to end one way.
I knew where the club was having played Cricket and Tennis there for Stowe Boys Club in the early eighties, but when I rocked up in 2000 for a few nets it was, under heavy construction and looking nothing like I remembered it. In 2001 with band commitments ebbing away, slightly more regular netting at the brand new Park Club resulted in me being able to play in a couple of Sunday friendlies. Eastcote at home and Wembley away.
Known for having the most encyclopaedic memory of all cricketers, what do you remember about your first Acton game?
Having stopped to think about it, surprisingly little. It was the type of game you really don’t see enough of these days i.e. a true Sunday 2nd eleven – featuring one true 1st/2nd teamer, a couple of fringe 2nd teamers, 5 or 6 colts and the rest made up of dads, irregular players and novices.
We batted first quite probably because Eastcote had a very young, colt’s heavy side and scored a decent total, made early inroads into their batting with the result only slightly in doubt when one of the parents in their team – an Aryan chap with Popeye-esque forearms – took to smiting our colts for a while. Won by 30 of 40 runs I think. Amundsen or something like that was his name.
Of our team, I’m embarrassed to say I can only remember Sunil Ghumra, Neal Valera, the Jamaican fella( not Lala) who scored a fifty( obviously not Lawla ) and of course the ever present John Reeve who skippered and kept wicket.
Of my own performance, I can remember throwing myself about the outfield with abandon to plenty of acknowledgment from our supporters and scoring either a duck or five? And I was run out but it wasn’t my fault.
As someone who joined the club as a senior player, what were your first impressions of the club and what made you stay and get involved to the extent you’ve twice been clubman of the year?
The very first impressions at that first net were of a well-structured, organised bunch of blokes, working very intensely and just itching to have laugh at one another’s expense. Definitely not a place to take yourself too seriously. Happy to say that is still the case to this day, though, there was a playful impishness back then, which was probably the club captain’s character bleeding into proceedings.
At that first game against Eastcote I was struck at how seamlessly everything flowed. Covers, boundary ropes, stumps and scorebox duties all being carried out in unison, very structured, very organised.
So, in 2002, having winter netted, played as many games as I could and netted as often as I could, I was well and truly bitten and becoming quite a regular. Two thirds of the way into the season Chairmanski – who was 2nd team captain at the time – and Jon Lodge invited me to sit in on a selection committee. The level of depth and professionalism (I won’t say structure or organisation) I experienced, sat on the patio, that bright summers evening was like nothing I’d known before. The effort and detailed debating that went into that Biro’ed in name on a team sheet was almost exhilarating. A massive eye-opener.
The following season I was voted onto the committee and my eyes weren’t so much opened as stubbed out with long thin things that had hot ends to them. The amount of personal time people put into the club is crucial to its maintenance. The amount of that time, which can then be taken up by the whimsical, careless actions of the few, is beyond frustrating.
Very soon I realised that it wasn’t just a club, but its own living, breathing entity, susceptible to both external and internal pressures like the rest of us. Hopefully, “doing my bit”, would ease those pressures.
The thrill of playing is almost matched by the joy of (potential) self-improvement and this club is a great vehicle for both those, but it doesn’t happen by accident.
The Clubman awards and the work that went towards those honours provide the ballast for all my practicing and my playing. I feel truly privileged to have received those awards.
As undoubtedly one of the most improved cricketers many players at the club have seen, what are your cricketing highlights with Acton?
Okay, so let’s get the obvious ones out of the way first.
Tour. If I had to choose, my first one in 2002. Now I’ve gotten pissed in some distant corners of the world, but I have never so willingly deprived myself of sleep and recovery time as when I’m on tour. There is something so intoxicating about getting up, the night after a bender, hearing what everyone got up to and then going to play cricket. And then doing it again and again and again and… And of course if you weren’t playing, there were plenty of shenanigans you could get yourself into, with the aforementioned impish thrust of our then captain’s lead to follow.
Talking of tour, leads nicely onto…
My Maiden Ton. 2006. Southwick. We won the toss. I opened and carried my bat the full 50… Just! Most will have heard of the last delivery where with a short and a straight mid-wicket, I was nearly caught twice and then nearly run out by mid-on moving to his right to field the drop/s. But most won’t know that I’d chipped a bone on my left middle finger earlier in the season which left my top hand weak and was why my wagon wheel was so lop-sided. Technically my worst ton, but easily my most important. The three “oohs” in quick succession that got louder and more hysterical with each chance missed – simply priceless.
Busy year 2006.
3rd Team League and Cup Winners. The 3rd team had seemed to be bouncing around the top half of the 1987 League top division since my time at the club. The teams of Tony Alder, Shaf Shah and Mark Saggers all seemed to be in with a decent shout of promotion for most of season, only to fall away in the closing stages. This probably highlights just how difficult a league it was to get out of and just how good a job Peter Lawla did. The particular highlight of the league season was crushing the second of our nearest rivals, Edmonton – a team nobody really liked, for numerous reasons – by 10 wickets, with Gautam Mehra scoring 162 in 23 overs. With their long and narrow ground I doubt, that their sightscreens, had ever before or since taken such a pounding.
The cup win against Wembley “4th’s” at Wembley showed just how good a team it was and was just how Acton like to win games – against the odds, with a bit spikiness thrown in. We turned up with a true 3rd eleven knowing that the league’s top brass would be there. The oppo looked strangely confident in their black suits. Maybe they were still in mourning, having narrowly missed out on promotion the week before? The spikiness kicked in when one of their players, who improved so much the following year that he was playing 1’s and 2’s, walked over the rope catching Lala and then brazenly confirmed the catch to the umpires. The wrong move. All the following batsmen contributed and the game won with overs to spare. Their non-batting, 2 over-bowling skipper was their only player not morbidly depressed afterwards, perhaps he owned a dry-cleaners.
My first Half Century at The Home of Cricket. Which formed part of the record breaking fourth wicket partnership of 186 and also coincided with – if I’m not mistaken – Alex Brennan’s first ton at the club. Alex and me often found ourselves netting together at odd times, in small groups or by ourselves throughout my first years at the club. I was playing when he scored his maiden century, he when I scored my first fifty. So there was a nice symmetry to it all as he plundered a Winchmore Hill attack to all parts and I steadily accrued.
Others worthy of a mention –
Being part of the first ever Acton 4th 11 league side. John Urquhart’s army won 12 matches in a row and obviously, subsequent promotion.
Scoring a thousand runs in 2009.
Being part of Duarte Marques 3rd team that won promotion to division two in 2010.
Scoring my first ton at The Park Club’s Field of Dreams.
What is your all time Acton XI?
I’m not going to make any apologies for this resembling anyone else’s. But I will limit it to players I’ve crossed the rope with.
1. Steve Basterfield: He of the “Impish” nature, who was so much more than just a purveyor of humour. A determined run scorer who knew his game inside out and prized his wicket more than anyone I’ve ever known – especially with 1st or 2nd slip charging towards the umpire whilst appealing in vain. Another one who I’d regularly find myself netting with at irregular times and whose imparted cricketing knowledge I’m still trying to do justice.
Going back to that very first net in 2000, I was the last one to bat and one of the last two bowlers who’d stayed behind in the cold and fading light to ensure everyone got a bat was Baz who, unbeknownst to me then, was, the club captain. A simple honest act of fairness and responsibility that registered with me later on, and has probably had a lot to do with how I’ve gone about things during my time at the club.
2. Aaron Taggart: Baz, Tags – Tags, Baz. It just works. Both complimented each other’s game, which is not to say their partnerships were greater than the sum of their parts. Tags was a murderous punisher of bad balls, especially off his legs. I was lucky enough to play/umpire in that game against Teddington when he became the first Acton cricketer to score a double century - the first time in eight months that he’d picked up a bat! A truly talented batsmen.
3. Maduranga Soysa: Talking of talent… I thought I’d include an overseas player, just because it reminds me how much of a thrill it was to see these highly skilled players rock up at nets after jumping off a plane and do things most of us would never be able to.
4. Yasir Mehmood: Talking of talented people from overseas… More than just your average sub-continental who walks through the door telling you how good he is. And if we ever needed reminding of that, the celebrations of the opposition on the rare occasion his wicket falls cheaply should be the tonic.
5. James Hunt: When I joined the club he was the all batting, all bowling superstar capable of opening in both disciplines. These days he is still an absolutely vital cog in the team’s make-up. Still capable of owning any number in the top 5 and trading on his versatility with the ball in hand. Arguably (very arguably knowing our club) the best cricketer Acton has produced.
6. Tom Forsdike: Whoa! Is the chairman keeping his “Controversy Tablets” within easy reach of all these days? No? Am I getting confused with the alternative, all-time needless sledging, umpire baiting and all round headcase elevens? No. Just, potentially, the most capable cricketer I’ve ever played with…
7. Sunil Ghumra: Talking of potential… I still maintain the best, purest cricketing stroke I’ve ever seen was a gentle Ghumra gee, back foot push/drive against a Harrow town 2nd teamer, that rocketed to the extra cover boundary. I still harbour hopes the “Ridge-rider” gets cured of his ‘Twilight’-esque fear of wood and re-joins the day-walkers to fulfil some more of his cricketing destiny.
8: John Reeve: Chairmanski gets in on the grounds that he was nationally recognised last year, provides the club with its strong, organisational core and ploughs away from the front providing enough of a slipstream to make it easier for the rest of us to help out when we can. Nothing to do with taking over 50 wickets every season for the last twenty years or so, scoring tens of thousands of runs and regularly setting an example for batsmen to follow. Also, nothing to do with the pressures of captaincy being sought after and relished. No, John just gets in, because he’s a thoroughly nice chap and a good mate. Oh, and now a very good coach too.
9. Jav Sahota: Third of fourth time his name has come up on one of these, so it will come as no surprise. And nor should it. A competitor of the highest calibre. And though that is what marks him out, the glovework is none too shabby and his batting has only become less effective as his knees have progressively worsened. It’s to my eternal regret that I haven’t been able to line up with him more often.
10. Matt Turnell: Another reason to love Sussex Tour. The only time I could regularly command a spot in a team with ‘Ledge’ in it. Accuracy, turn, tactics and all the little tricks in between. Everything. And of course the wickets. Lots and lots of them. Hundreds and hundreds of them. A couple of seasons away from thousands of them… An absolute thrill to have shared game time with him.
11. Olly Harvey: Well, somebody’s got to drive Matty to and from games. Everybody knows Olly is still a handful, even on one leg. Even up to a few years ago everybody still hated facing him in nets. And if you can keep it to yourselves, whisper it quietly, he was even better fifteen years ago. Very skilled at effecting swing and seam movement and using his physical advantages. Just don’t tell him.
Honourable mentions to Dan Lynch, Richard Hernan, Mark Posniak and Robin Singh, all of whom I never, unfortunately, got to play with.
Steve Jones, who I’m sure will appreciate the man-management being implemented.
And I’ve no idea what measures Beefy will take to console himself with his omission.