Studying Joyce in Dublin

A few years ago, lying on the grassy banks of the cricket pitch at Trinity College, Dublin, I watched a batsman polish a studied and sound technique at the crease. "Ed something, he plays for Leinster," noted a supine companion. A cocky London suburbanite reared admiring the professional talents of Essex CC, I shrugged and, unimpressed, turned to thoughts of when best to return to the student bar.

Had I made an effort to seek out Ed Joyce's companionship, a task that befell me some time later would have been a little easier than it proved. "Have you seen an Irishman is playing for Middlesex?" asked a freelance friend, angling for a commission from The Irish Post, a newspaper for Irish in Britain and my employer at the time. A few phone calls later, I had the interview organised.

So, how did it go? "Hmm, yeah, okay," my friend said. "We had a longish chat in a cafe in Soho. He was friendly enough but seemed a bit ambivalent about being a cricketer, bored even." Ambivalent? Possibly bored? What better evidence that England's talented left-hander is the natural heir to David Gower?