Association of Cricket Officials Issue 32 | Page 25

Libby Worby, aged 10, pictured here scoring in Norfolk. The Worby Way Isn’t it great to hear of a wonderful story? In a cricketing world where we frequently hear about spats involving Test players, sometimes a truly fantastic moment can lift everyone’s spirits. One such moment came from an email the Norfolk ACO Secretary David Coe received from James Worby of Garboldisham CC, whose daughter Libby, aged 10, has just completed the Club Scorer course. Extracts from the email are below. ‘Thanks David, Libby loves the course, she self-taught herself scoring by buying a scorebook with her birthday money and spent her school holidays scoring live T20 matches on TV. I never ever asked her or pushed her into it. Incredible for a 10-year-old girl to show that much passion at such a tender age. She scored for my Saturday team for 15 out of the 16 league matches last season unaided, albeit Julie Humphreys scored with her for most of the weeks so she had a helpful hand if needed. She dreams of scoring for England in the future, bless her. Thanks and kind regards, James Worby.’ The reaction to the story on the Norfolk ACO Facebook page has been amazing, with support coming from across Norfolk cricket. James recently commented: ‘I am truly humbled by all of your positive responses and kind words to me and Libby. She is absolutely made up by hearing your responses and I’m sure this will spur her on to continue on her path to Test match scoring. I never thought my original email reply to Mr Coe would cause such a positive stir but it really has made me sit back and realise how proud I am, along with my wife, at what Libby has achieved in teaching herself to score over the last 11 months. I forget sometimes that she only started last April – she tells me the first game she scored was precisely on 5 April 2017 (this was in front of the TV) – and her first live scoring match was for my team away at Hethersett and Tas Valley Second XI on 29 April. I wasn’t sure she was ready if I’m honest, but she’s never looked back.’ Garboldisham CC has a record of nurturing scorers and always has a scorer for all its teams and it is no surprise that this environment encourages others to want to get involved. Well done Libby! Norfolk ACO are proud of you and sincerely hope you realise your ambition. Nigel Crickmore Norfolk ACO Appointments Officer email us at [email protected] contact us on 0121 446 2710 25