OK, just be clear, this week’s instalment is not about me. Honest. It’s also not about the British menswear icon of the same name, though the title has been unashamedly taken from a newspaper article I found several years ago about the Mod legend who launched his own £95 cricket ball in a home Ashes series year. Instead, the focus is on Mr A P Smith, who favoured Paul as a name, and in the early 1980s set two 1st XI league batting records, one of which stands to this day.

1967 was the year when Paul Smith led the junior team at Menston Cricket Club. He took six wickets in the Denison Cup Semi-Final to dismiss Guiseley for 75. Opening batsman Colin Thorpe scored 40 not out in a 5-wicket win, achieved in the last over by two cheeky byes. There was a rehearsal for the final against Horsforth in a league match in the week before – Paul Smith did not play, but even with his inclusion the scores (Horsforth 151-3, Menston 66-6) did not give much hope for the Denison Cup Final.

On 16th July 1967, at Hall Park, Menston batted first and scored a modest 109 all out from 40 overs, Michael Brown scoring an impressive 60 of the runs. John Roberts, who would eventually join Somerset as a professional, gave some of the Menston batsmen a torrid time, including Paul Smith who scored only 1 run. This may have contributed to Horsforth’s downfall for 83, with Paul Smith incensed and reportedly bowling like a man possessed to inspire Menston to victory with 8-38 off 19.1 overs. And a week later, just to show that he could turn on the style not just with his bowling, Paul hit a hurricane 115, including 16 fours and a six against Otley in the last league match of a successful junior season.

So, the two league batting records. Well, Paul was clearly ahead of his time. In 1982, he hit the fastest century in just 38 balls against Horsforth – a strike rate more akin to today’s T20 run fests. This records still stands in the Airedale & Wharfedale Senior Cricket League.

Then, a year later, Paul hit 38 runs off an over (which included a no-ball) in a match against Guiseley. Regarding the ‘smash hit’, Menston captain David Thackeray is reported to have said: “I have been in this game for a long time, but this was something special. I have never seen anything like it. Paul swotted the ball tennis-style over the square leg boundary. Everyone was in fits of laughter. Paul hardly looks like a cricketer and some of his shots aren’t in the manual – he ruined a perfectly good game of cricket in minutes!”

Incredibly, this record was broken in 2006 by ex-Menston junior Jonathan Hughes when playing for North Leeds in a cup match – Hughes hit an astonishing 42, the over including two no-balls.

Speaking of cup matches, Paul Smith occasionally came out of retirement to help when teams were short. In 2005, he made such an appearance in the Waddilove Cup away to Kirkstall, a match in which a young Tom Lester made the headlines:

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“Eight-year-old makes cup debut”

Menston played what is believed to be the youngest ever player in the competition: eight-year-old Thomas Lester.

The youngster, who plays for Guiseley’s Under-9 and Under-11 teams, turned up to watch his dad David. When Menston were a man short he volunteered to play, and he even took a wicket when he was allowed to bowl two overs.

He dismissed Kirkstall’s Stefan Viljoen who was caught on the boundary by 58-year-old Paul Smith who had come out of retirement to help Menston out. The youngster, who bowls right arm seamers, had 1-14 off his two overs. Kirkstall posted a massive 319-3 with Steve Harrison making 128 and Alan Siddall 113 not out. Menston fell for 165 in reply.
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However, the reporter got his Paul Smiths mixed up (not sure how, given our different builds). It was definitely me that took the catch at deep square leg. A P Smith had been standing stylishly at slip – not a bad place to be when your team is leaking over 300 runs!