By Jonty Ralphsmith
It wasn’t the way he wanted to bow out, but Fountain Gate’s semi-final exit on Saturday was Dave Lucas’ last hurrah.
His experience and assistance for the club during this campaign has been widely commended after a host of departures last season left several unsure where the club sat.
Dealt difficult cards – with their coach departing just two weeks out from the season and the experienced but unfamiliar Dave Sime left to lead a young team with no home venue all season – relegation seemed more likely than finals.
“I was like, if we win two or three games this season we’ve done well,” said first-year captain Karan Singh.
“Him staying has given us the ability to move forward and that’s the reason (we played on the weekend).”
The club finished with six wins and seedlings of optimism, knowing that sustained commitment and maturity is all that stands in the way of further success.
In a season of change, Lucas has been a pillar of experience who knows which levers to pull – both as leader and player.
“He’s a smart bowler, he changes his pace, snaps his wrists and has a couple of slower balls and makes the batters play, that’s the key to him – he’s just a clever bowler,” said Sime.
The extra season on the park, though, hasn’t come without challenges – the seam-up bowler has had to change his action for the first time in his career to accommodate his ageing body.
Still, the left-armer offers a point-of-difference that builds dot balls and breaks patience.
“It’s the Dave Lucas line and length and he hits it more than anyone I know…it’s a consistent 6-8 overs,” Singh said.
Part of the growth of the next generation is attributed to the experience of Lucas – Sime indicates he’s helped grow Turf 3 team of the year bowler Hasindu Waduge, among others.
It’s fitting that they’ve grown on such a linear trajectory this season, for fostering young talent with waning interest, into senior cricketers hungry for team success, is an intrinsic part of Lucas’ legacy.
“(Dave) was instrumental in providing guidance in how we want to play,” the skipper revealed.
“Dealing with players, dealing with situations that come up on and off field, so having him there to fall back on was important knowing I was going to make wrong decisions.
“On field I trust him completely – if he has an idea, it will work more often than not work.
“He has 22-25 years of experience in the ones so if he comes to me with something, 95 percent of the time, he’s right.”
For Lucas, a former captain-coach, like so many ageing grade cricketers, the decision was driven by a desire to spend more time with family.
“The big thing for me is around communication with everyone and instilling that level of respect and getting people into the club and understanding what the history is and playing hard but doing things the right way,” Lucas said.
He takes with him a bounty of memories and mates and leaves behind a legacy of guile and fun, showing and telling exactly the way cricket should be played.
In all, he finishes with 203 matches, 369 wickets at an economy rate of 2.55 and a batting average of 15.11.
“I would’ve loved to have played Turf 1 cricket,” Lucas said.
“At that time, I really had to think and decide what’s more important and for me it was being at Fountain Gate.
“I would’ve loved the challenge, the best part of bowling is doing it against the best batters, that’s the most enjoyment I get out of cricket.
“It would’ve been great but in an ideal world it would’ve been with Fountain Gate.”
