Numbers not important for Albion’s three musketeers

Albion trio Josh Cuttance (from left), Jamie Glenn and Tim Ford have played almost 800 senior...
Albion trio Josh Cuttance (from left), Jamie Glenn and Tim Ford have played almost 800 senior games for the club. Photo: Gregor Richardson
Between them they have scored more than 12,000 runs, taken close to 400 wickets and played nearly 800 games — but who is counting?

Certainly not Jamie Glenn. Tim Ford had no idea either. Josh Cuttance shook his head as well.

None of that turned out to be important for the veteran trio.

Cricket brought them together, but it is the friendship that has kept them going so long.

Glenn (36) can claim the most seniority. His father played for the club and he got his start with Albion as a 5-year-old.

He graduated to senior cricket in 2004 and has clocked 295 senior games for the club.

Glenn had a couple of years in Southland and another couple on the sideline as a coach, otherwise that number would be well past 300 by now.

Had it not been for the meticulous effort of others, such as long-serving scorer Helen Simpson and club stalwart Tony Buchanan, no-one would know how many games he had played.

"Something like that," was Glenn’s best guess when asked if he was close to 300 games.

As for wickets and runs — "I couldn’t even have a guess".

"Most of the highlights have been off the field," he added.

He had got to share the field with some special players. He played alongside Brendon and Nathan McCullum. Former England international Jonathan Trott also played "two or three games for us" during his stint with the Otago Volts in 2005-06.

Neil Wagner played for the Eagles as well.

But it is the regulars he had played alongside for so long who have kept him coming back year after year.

"I’ve known Tim since we’ve been able to throw a ball."

That Tim is Tim Ford.

Ford (31) has been playing senior cricket for the club since 2010. He has been a wicketkeeper for most of that time but has relinquished the gloves this season.

He bought up 300 senior games last weekend.

"I was a junior here, as was Jamie and my brother and one or two others who are still around."

The club nationals and the friendships cricket created stood out as the highlights for Ford.

He has scored one century for the Eagles, about 10 years ago.

Cuttance (30) reached 200 games last weekend. To go with that double century he also chips in around the meeting table — he is the club president.

He made his way south from Wellington in 2011. Former Volts coach Nathan King helped lure him to Albion.

"That national tournament we used to go on, which is no longer a thing, was quite cool," Cuttance said when asked about his highlights.

"That was a week away with the boys and a chance to play other people around the country. And it actually served as a good recruitment tool," Cuttance said.

"But we are lucky we have good core which has stayed together and that helps — that’s why we’ve probably played so many games.

For the record, Glenn has scored 7327 runs and taken 132 wickets. Ford has snapped up 261 catches, effected 36 stumpings and scored 3877 runs, while Cuttance has 264 wickets at an average of 21.76 and 1110 runs.

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