If you ever find yourself on a sticky wicket in the courtroom, then cricket might teach you a lesson or two, says Jeremy Fleming

After a year of mixed fortunes thus far in British sport, cricket seems an oasis of hope for supporters of the national team, currently on a roll having won eight out of its last nine Test matches.

So it is just as well that this is a sport lawyers revel in. The Law Society’s own club plays against some of the Oxford and Cambridge colleges, the House of Lords/House of Commons side, the Refreshers (a barristers’ team) and has a match against Richmond every year because one of the first presidents of the club, Tom Outhwaite, was also president there.


Pitched battle: stars took part in a Pro Am Cricket Festival – sponsored by Lees Lloyd Whiteley – in Barbados, with the firm’s marketing director Claire Mottershead pictured with the London Xl But many lawyers find time to play for smaller village teams or eclectic sides. Paul Daniels – the partner in the employment department of London firm Russell Jones & Walker rather than the former television conjuror – plays for a firm side that sets up games against clients over the summer months. But cricket is also a hobby that he plays away from the firm.

Mr Daniels plays for a team comprising mainly of lawyers and media types called Captain Scott’s XI. He says the name arises from Scott’s association with heroic failure in his attempt to reach the South Pole, and with the epigram of Captain Oates.


But for Captain Scott’s XI, ‘I’m going out, I may be some time’ is a bullish rallying cry for what they expect to attain on the pitch in runs and not the last words of a self-sacrificing stoic en route to an icy death.



The club, which plays about 25 fixtures annually, has something of a celebrity background, having formerly included Private Eye editor Ian Hislop and Brit-flick Lothario Hugh Grant among its players.



Mr Daniels says that playing for the team – he is a batsman who usually plays number four – is ‘a lovely escape from the intensity of London’.


The most recent fixture for the club was played against Lord Spencer’s XI at Althorp, the Northamptonshire pile of the late Diana, Princess of Wales’ brother.


‘We lost, but it was a beautiful place to play cricket, and we had some American tourists transfixed by the sight of us playing.’


The club’s captain, a non-lawyer called Harry Thompson – a producer of the television comedy quiz ‘They think it’s all over’ among others – has the rare and mad-sounding distinction of having played cricket in Antarctica, another Captain Scott connection.


Using this as a starting point, he arranged a five-continents tour last year with vice-captain and legal clerk Sean Reilly, who works at London criminal firm Lewis Nedas & Co.


The team played a Bajan team representing North America, Buenos Aires first XI in Argentina for South America, before flying to Perth to take on its first-team for Australasia. Next stop was Singapore, where the team played the Ceylon Club for Asia, then on to South Africa, where it played a Cape Town club.


The Barbados leg of the trip was the second time last year that the tropical island, favoured as a holiday spot by Prime Minister Tony Blair, has been inundated by bat-wielding UK lawyers.


The island’s annual Pro Am Cricket Festival – held in December last year – was sponsored by Merseyside firm Lees Lloyd Whiteley, which advises members of the Professional Cricketers Association.


The event saw a host of famous cricketers in action, including Worcestershire’s Steve Rhodes, who captained the Lees Lloyd team to victory.



The highlight was a match between a London XI and a Bridgetown XI, which the hosts won by 19 runs. The team included the likes of former England internationals Chris Silverwood, Chris Adams, Craig White, Mark Ramprakash and Darren Gough (see [2004] Gazette, 8 January, 9).



Mr Daniels admits that Captain Scott’s XI lost every single match except the one in Singapore, which it clinched by a wicket. But some of the teams encountered were quite strong, he adds wistfully.


Mr Reilly says of his job as vice-captain: ‘I have to placate players who think they are better than they are.’ But he says that cricket is a valuable sport for lawyers.


He is hoping he may be taken on for articles later this year at Lewis Nedas, having worked for several months as a clerk on money laundering, fraud and other crime cases.


He says: ‘The game teaches you tactics, from identifying the weak spots in the opposing team, to thinking in a constructive and logical way. It certainly has an application for a lawyer dealing with prosecutions.’


He says there is an ideology underlying cricket – ‘a balance between the intellect and the sporting ability’ – which appeals to him.


For Mr Daniels, the game represents the opportunity to get outdoors with other people. He says: ‘I like to be sociable and it’s a nice escape from the stresses and strains of London.’



• For more information on the Law Society’s cricket club, contact Richard O’Hagan, tel: 0118 958 5611; for more information on Captain Scott’s XI contact Sean Reilly, e-mail: acesreilly@aol.com.