There have been many very good players to play I’Anson cricket. We need look no further than Frensham for two examples in Sheoghan Dickinson and John Storey. But there has been only one great player to play I’Anson cricket, Graham Thorpe.

Sport can often be reduced to mere statistics, cricket is more prone than others to succumb here. The hallmark of a great batsman has often been an average of over 50. Thorpe’s average of 44.66 falls some way short here, but you only need to look at the quality of bowling he faced and the paucity of backup in the England team, to realise his brilliance.

The role call of bowlers he faced across different nations is frightening (we are talking about greats of the game);

Australia - McGrath and Warne
Pakistan - Wasim and Waqar
South Africa - Donald and Pollock
Sri Lanka - Muralitharan and Vaas
India - Kumble and Singh
West Indies - Walsh and Ambrose

Thorpe played some of the finest innings of his era, and with contrasting styles. In the Lahore Test of November 2000 he reached his century after hitting a solitary boundary. Yet at Christchurch in 2002 there were 18 boundaries on the way to his first hundred runs against New Zealand – he would progress to an unbeaten double century and his highest Test innings, scoring at a faster rate than his partner, Andrew Flintoff.

His match-winning century in Colombo in 2001 against Muttiah Muralitharan was a masterpiece, demonstrating how Thorpe was one of the best at assessing risk and reward. Early on, he played his slog-sweep against Murali, a calculated risk that brought vital gains. The ball flew to the boundary and Murali posted a man there for the rest of his innings. Thereafter, Thorpe patiently explored the gaps in the field that one bold shot had created.

But perhaps his finest (and most unfortunate for Frensham’s sake), was his maiden adult century. Thorpe scored an unbeaten hundred for Wrecclesham to deny Frensham the l’Anson title. He was 12 years old at the time.

One of those fortunate enough to share a field (and many beers) with him, was our very own Adam Page.

‘I first came across Graham Thorpe when I was at middle school. St. Andrews, my school, was due to have a top of the table clash against St. Peters. We had been told that this youngster had been scoring all their runs and taking all their wickets.

The day came and St. Peters arrived. Fortunately for us, we were told that Graham had been caught climbing over the school fence and had been banned from playing cricket.

I then played lots of games against Graham in local leagues. Very occasionally I would be successful and get him out, but most of the time he would smash me around to various parts of Surrey and beyond.

When we joined forces at Farnham College, where we had a very decent side. Where some of us would score 20s and 30s, Graham would score a hundred most matches. He made the game look easy. In one game against Godalming College, he got bored after getting to 50 and started batting right handed, switching back to left handed between 100 and 150.

I also played football with Graham for Farnham, from under 13s to under 17s. He was equally good at football as he was at cricket, playing for England schoolboys and having trials with Brentford. Once we had all grown up we played in the same adult side, Old Farnhamians. This side had real quality, including Graham Thorpe, Martin and Darren Bicknell, Alan and Ian Thorpe and the late David Jervis of Tilford CC fame. Again, Graham was our star.’

Robin Dibdin, President of the now absorbed ‘Two Counties Youth League’. Was with Thorpe on several tours of Kent as an U/13 and U/15 TCYL representative side. He also made him Captain of the U/15 side.

‘Graham was a tenacious cricketer. He lived for cricket and was so dedicated to his game. Everything else to him was irrelevant. He could bowl as well as bat however I had to rein him in on tour as he would open the batting and the bowling and I had to explain that he had to trust his team mates.

He scored several 100’s while on the Kent tour for the Two Counties. They say he played left handed just to frustrate his older brothers when they played cricket in the garden. This wouldn’t surprise me. He of course went on to great things for England and latterly coaching in Australia and also for England. A prestigious talent, it is desperately sad that he has passed at such a young age.’

While his sporting prowess was clear to see for all, Page also remembers the impact Thorpe had on him personally;

‘My final memory was a night out after one of these senior games. We all went into Farnham for a night out. I was meant to meet up with a very attractive lady that I had met the week before.

Anyway, the young lady arrived and saw the error of her ways. She made her excuses and left sharpishly, and to be honest I was gutted.

Graham saw what was happening, told the boys to move on, sat down with me and we shared an hour just talking about old times.

He was captain for most of the games I played with him but he always looked after us.’