Where Are They Now?

GEOFF HUMPAGE

28-06-2008

Former Warwickshire all-rounder Paul Smith tracks down an old Bears favourite - hard-hitting wicket-keeper and batsman Geoff Humpage who courted controversy by taking part in a tour to apartheid South Africa in the 1980s.

The destinies of professional sportsmen in the aftermath of their careers display a high degree of variability. Ex - professional cricketers have been known to earn their “corn” in all sorts of ways once the polish has faded from their cricketing skills and they’ve left the game.

I’ve heard of players become coffin salesmen, nightclub owners, undertakers, and Vicars, to name just a few occupations to hopefully keep the wolf from the door. One ex-teammate from my Edgbaston days chose a career path with the local West Midlands constabulary as his post-cricketing occupation.

Nowadays, PC Geoff Humpage is more likely to being seen patrolling the streets of Northfield in Birmingham than the Edgbaston cricket stadium, just a few short miles down the road. However, his legacy as one of the Warwickshire Bears finest, is cast in stone.

Humpage started a long and successful career at Edgbaston back in 1974, entertaining cricket fans far and wide for the next 16 years. He showed spectators that he was a rarity – a real team player, a guy who could change a game quickly, off his own bat. As an entertainer he’d stand out like a beacon nowadays, where predictability is a problem facing cricket. Twenty/twenty would have been right up Humpage`s street, and with India now paying sky high prices for the services of the modern games best entertainers, one wonders what this man’s dual skill market value would have been, had such opportunity been available to him.

Early days at Edgbaston were spent battling for a spot behind the stumps with Derek Murray. He finally got an opportunity when the Trinidadian was absent representing the West Indies in the inaugural World Cup.

Having been presented with this break, he displayed his skills with telling effect, finishing with 24702 runs, and as a wicket keeper, his tally was only 6 shy of a 1000 victims. It’s a magnificent record which is unlikely to be beaten. In this respect Humpage looked at his career and reflected that “statistics are things you tend to look back on - it’s only when you retire and put the kit away that you realise how big a contributor you were.”

Keith Piper replaced Humpage behind the stumps in 1990 and totaled 5588 runs in the same length of career. To place the magnitude of Humpty`s success into proper perspective, whereas the latter was an allrounder, Keith was predominantly, a truly exceptional specialist wicket keeper. The comparison is not meant to demean the stature of Piper since it is widely acknowledged that he could be, on his day, the best in world cricket. He was an artist with gloves on his hands.

Humpage took the view that making judgment between the modern game and the era in which he played, is a hazardous exercise. On the other hand, he noted that what sets the era apart is “the vast number of quality quicks performing in English cricket at that time”.

In contrast he reflected that “there’s no one to fear in the modern game. Players like New Zealand’s Shane Bond or Pakistan’s Shoaib Akhtar have genuine speed, but they, like others who’ve appeared, have lacked the fitness required to play the English first class game”.

In developing this theme he added - “You don’t see anyone putting 100% into their English career like Andy Roberts, Wasim Akram, and Michael Holding did. Their 95% was enough to tell you that adrenalin is brown.”

The humour Humpage brought into the game is legendary, and in a 16 year career span I never came across any one funnier. During a representative game at Lords I overheard MCC captain John “Trout” Barclay shout across the changing room to Geoff “Number 8 okay in the batting order?” His reply? “I don’t know Trout; I’ve never batted there before”.

Retiring in 1990 with just 3 ODI caps to show for his time in the game, it’s hard to believe that if Humpy’s career had not started 10 years later he wouldn’t have been on some form of ECB playing contract. Competition for the England keepers job was fierce in the '80s.

"It was damn hard with the likes of Knott, Bairstow, Downton, Tolchard, and Bob Taylor floating around. It was an era blessed with talented wicket keepers, and in the case of Knott and Taylor, they were truly, truly exceptional".

Humpage would surely have added to his International appearance tally had he not joined the Graham Gooch led SAB tour of the South Africa Republic in 1981/2. In this regard he remarked that “Having played against Australia the previous summer, it was possibly expected I’d be asked to be part of their plans. It was a great experience which over time played a part in highlighting the Apartheid regime because within a decade it was being dismantled”.

With the present upheaval facing English cricket over our best players potentially taking Indian money and boycotting the traditional game, I asked Geoff why he’d agreed to go on the S.A.B tour. “I think most people except for the financial security the invitation offers. Also, it’s the opportunity to test oneself at an exceptionally high level of sport, in different conditions, overseas.

"For those reasons I don’t regret the decision I made. Remember, this was way before offers of ECB central contracts, and the security those sorts of deals give a player”.

It’s a fair shout, and one shared by the many who also accepted Dr Ali Bacher’s invitation. Middlesex and England International John Emburey, a guy who went on two so called ‘Rebel’ tours recently commented on his own reasons, saying, “in hindsight it was a mistake. But at the time my decision was purely monetary. I'd lost my benefit money in a building society in Australia. My decision was purely financial, purely about me...”

Highlights from his career with Warwickshire include three Lords Finals. In referring to his First final against Surrey he said “this is one I can easily forget. We didn’t do ourselves justice on the day and the game effectively was over by lunchtime”.

He added that the second Final, the ‘84 B&H against Lancashire was another disappointment… “despite the country being in drought, the Lords wicket was saturated, we batted first and the ball went sideways”. It was a case of the performers turning up, but the provided props, being inadequate.

Yours truly can confirm this, for I opened the batting in this Final, and being confronted with England’s Paul Allott and South African left arm quick Stephen Jefferies, it was a thankless task.

On reflection about this Lancashire final Humpage thought that “despite our experience as a team, we didn’t impose ourselves on these occasions. Things changed for us in the ‘89 Nat West final against Middlesex. We played as a team and beat them in their own backyard, against the odds”.

Far removed from the bright lights and glamour of Lords Finals lies the county championship, a competition which Warwickshire rarely challenged in during the ‘70s and ‘80s, with the club often believing the one day competitions were a more likely route to silverware. Yet Humpage`s batting career statistics in the longer game can boast two double centuries, a bludgeoning 254 against Lancashire, and a spectacular 205 at Chesterfield v Derby on a quick green bouncy surface against Devon Malcolm and Michael Holding. Both are testimony to his excellence, fighting spirit, and concentration skills.

Mid career saw Humpage win silver wear under the captaincy of Bob Willis when the Bears tasted one day success in the then, shortest version of the game.

Reflecting back, Humpage stated “the ‘79 season saw us finish bottom of the Sunday League. The following April we sat and worked out how we could finish 1980 as league winners”. The key focus for the success will have stemmed initially from skipper Bob Willis – a man stupidly still accused of showing little interest in English First Class cricket.

Humpage skills featured highly in Willis’s plan that summer. “I played the first six games as a bowler/ batsman, and in the7th game, against Middlesex, Willis and cricket manager David Brown asked me to keep wicket, again. I ended up scoring 100 against Van De Bjil, Wayne Daniels, Edmunds, Embury and Mike Selvey”.

Against an all International attack, this innings is still rated as one of the finest played at Edgbaston. “I think over my career I played innings which were equally as devastating, which also won games for the team. Its just that with that Middlesex knock, it came down to how long you can keep that level of scoring flowing off the bat, against that standard of bowling line up. Playing the innings at home, at Edgbaston, and in front of our own fans, it was special, as the ground has its own atmosphere when it’s brimming”.

Since hanging up his gloves in 1990 the ex Bears legend has spent the last decade and a half on the beat locally. The experience has taught him he’s involved in “a growth industry. It’s a role which is highly under rated, and the job is never boring”, adding “sometimes, and yet unfortunately, the Police force is poorly judged by a public who don’t understand the many difficulties the job entails.”

Geoff Humpage’s kit bag still occasionally sees the light of day when duty allows, with appearances for the Old England X1 taking him around the country. He finishes by stating “I try and play six fixtures a year, each game reminds me of the great education the game gives you”.