The Wisden Club Cricket Hall of Fame: Mike Ingham

“I remember hitting Allan Donald on-the-up over cover for four when he was at Rishton,” recalls Mike Ingham, an independent financial advisor from Haslingden in east Lancashire. “I thought, ‘What have you done?’

“It was 1996. He was 29. He gave me two quick bouncers, one past my nose, and then went round the wicket for what I thought would be a big in-swinging yorker, so was back and across waiting, but it wasn’t. The next thing I knew I was waking up with a crowd around me. It took him three goes, but he got me in the end.”

Haslingden had the last laugh, mind. Rishton – who had bowled the same opponents out for 31 a few weeks earlier – were 103-5 in pursuit of the home team’s 104 and still managed to lose!

But Ingham’s career highlight was the unbeaten 56 he made for the LCC team two years earlier against the Aussies on their Ashes tour opener, sharing a 106-run partnership with Simon O’Donnell who, like Simmons, would pro for Haslingden. As did Dennis Lillee (explaining the 14-year-old Ingham’s short-lived aspiration to bowl quick), Geoff Lawson, Andy Roberts, Eddo Brandes, Hartley Alleyne (“By a country mile the quickest thing I’ve seen in the league”) and Aussie one-cap wonder, Mick Malone, whose remorseless attitude to training had a major impact on him.

Another influential figure was his father John – a Haslingden stalwart who was later a professional in the nearby leagues and impressed on his steady, orthodox lad the need to put a high price on his wicket, for which Ingham “copped a bit of stick”. He admits: “I’m not the most aggressive batsman. I seek out the bad ball and don’t try to invent shots.”

Still physically fit – “My back creaks, but I can still run to Rawtenstall and back” – Ingham, now 61, is playing for Woodbank in the Manchester Association. Whether his Lancashire League records are broken or not, they will remain a monument to an exceptional club batsman in a golden era of international superstars.