Silver Stumps - the Over 60s/70s Cricket Podcast · Grant Timms and Trevor Lee

Special Guest: Sir Tim Rice - O60s/70s Vice-President

·27 min·1 clip

Sir Tim Rice says Heartaches began in 1973 because he wanted to play cricket and had no team.

1. Silver Stumps episode 85 centres on Sir Tim Rice at Mullion Cricket Club and his links with over-60s and over-70s cricket. 2. Trevor from Silver Stumps introduces Sir Tim Rice as a vice-president of the over-60s and over-70s organisation, alongside Roland Butcher and Barry Hearn. 3. The episode asks why Rice formed Heartaches, why the team keeps touring Cornwall, and what he thinks cricket is becoming. 4. Rice says Heartaches started in 1973 when he was 27 or 28 and wanted to play proper cricket again. 5. He describes leaving school, working in the record business, and moving into theatre with Andrew Lloyd Webber while still following cricket closely. 6. He says the first season produced five matches, the second season produced 10, and some later seasons reached 19 or 20 matches. 7. Rice explains that Heartaches came from a company called Heartaches Limited and that the cricket side inherited the name from that business. 8. He says the team colours were red, pink, and green, chosen after a long evening, and he jokes that he probably would not have chosen them sober. 9. He stresses that Heartaches is not a showbiz celebrity team and says the players are friends and friends of friends. 10. He says the side has toured Cornwall for over 40 years and has played Mullion virtually every year in that period. 11. Rice says he played his last game at Mullion the previous year and now cannot run properly. 12. He says he picked up injuries, including one while umpiring, which he found even more annoying than a playing injury. 13. He recalls Mike Gatting playing for Heartaches and says Gatting enjoyed bowling because he had not done enough of it in first-class cricket. 14. He says Gatting often batted well enough to reach 40 or 50 before getting out against a young bowler. 15. Rice names Phil Edmonds, Alan Lam, Colin Cowdrey, Jim Laker, and David Capel as distinguished cricketers he has met or played with. 16. He says modern cricket gives more instant gratification, but he does not find more sixes and fours especially interesting. 17. He says the five-day Test matches against India this summer showed that Test cricket still has a great future. 18. The conversation stays informal and personal, with Trevor and Rice joking about umpiring, appeals, and a 99th maiden over that became a 100th maiden. 19. Listeners who like senior cricket, Sussex links, or Tim Rice’s cricket history will get the most from this episode. 20. Listeners who want technical coaching or a fast-paced tactical breakdown may find it less useful.

Listen to the show on

Apple Podcasts Spotify

Play clips from this episode More from Silver Stumps - the Over 60s/70s Cricket Podcast