COVERED SPRING 2021

COVERED 10 TRENTBRIDGE.CO.UK WORK REST & PLAY WITH THE OUTLAWS Book your club tour at West Bridgford today, call 0345 129 6810 or come down and see us: Rugby Rd, West Bridgford, Nottingham NG2 7HX “It’s the same with the bowlers as well – lads like Bally (Jake Ball) and Fletch (Luke Fletcher) are just normal, approachable guys who are very good at what they do. “Coming into that environment, it’s just about being a sponge, asking as many questions as you can and working out what is going to work for you.” ******* When your father has chalked up several hundred First-Class appearances, your childhood is always likely to be one steeped in the game. But Tom Moores’ sporting upbringing was all his own. Born in the year that Adam Gilchrist made his Australia debut, and just six years of age whenTwenty20 cricket burst onto the county scene, the young Moores benefited from a melting pot of influences and experiences. It all began in a Sussex back yard. “I remember having one of those little ‘signature’ cricket bats, that would have been a full-size bat to me at the time!” he recalls. “I’d be out in the garden, or in the lounge, and if anyone would under-arm a ball towards me, I’d be straight onto it, batting for hours. “I’d make up my own games, like you do as a kid, where hitting the back wall in the garden was four and hitting the decking area was out – and as a left-hander, that was right in line with my cover drive! “Then I’d go to games when my Dad was coaching at Sussex, but I’d hardly watch any cricket. I’d be in the indoor school, playing one-hand one-bounce with anyone I could find, and making up the rules so I could bat for as long as possible!” Two decades on, the imprints made in those early days still linger. The next time you marvel at a typically audacious Tom Moores maximum, all wrist and hand speed, you are witnessing the fruits of those formative days. “Those improvised games are probably where a lot of my core game developed,” he says. “You’re so impressionable as a kid that those fundamental skills stick with you and take you all the way through your career. “One of my biggest strengths is my hands, and I guess that came from games in the garden where hitting a certain wall on the full meant I was out. “I had to learn to keep the ball on the floor, and get onto the back foot to deal with any bumpy bits of grass. “You tidy those skills up as you go along, but that’s where it all started.” Those key attributes took Moores into the county game, and to trophy success. Now, to see further, he stands on the shoulders of giants.