There are occasions in life when you stumble into a conversation with a complete stranger, only to end the chat, feeling you have known the person all of your days.
From the comfort of a park bench in Gordon Park, Ellon, I recently enjoyed such an experience when I met Mark Bridgeman who was having a day out from his own club in Aberfeldy where he is the secretary of the Breadalbane Cricket Club who had no fixture that day.
So what then was the Wiltshire born Mark doing in Ellon, watching a Grade Three game? Perhaps he had been hearing of the run gathering exploits of Ellon Gordon’s top order batsmen, and was there to offer lucrative contracts to sign for the 157 year old Perthshire club?
In fact he was there to watch his son play for Stonehaven Thistle, so not unnaturally our early discussions were centred on the game in front of us before we broadened the chat to embrace our views on how we could improve the lot of local, community based cricket.
To my delight, Mark shared my enthusiasm for promoting the development of junior cricket, including support for the introduction of girls to the game. He also had some radical ideas for speeding up the game, not least being bowling 10 consecutive overs from the same end.
He also gave my idea of starting games earlier in the day some support, while hinting that my hugely controversial notion of scrubbing teas, merited discussion.
But as the three hour chat developed, I realised there was much, much more than cricket to my new found friend, as he turned out be a football supporter whose allegiance and knowledge of Swindon Town, compared to my own obsession for non league Carlisle United.
He was additionally a one man publicity machine for his local team, St Johnstone, giving me chapter and verse on the achievements of their manager Simo Valakari, while predicting the Finnish born coach would eventually move on to greater things in the beautiful game.
All in all, a fascinating afternoon, proving there are people out there who really are committed to sport, and in particular amateur games in the community.
So next time you see me in earnest discussion on a park bench, don’t assume I am talking about how to get home, or what I will have, or had for my last meal.
Oh, and before I forget, Mark Bridgeman is a successful author who has appeared on ITV, Channel 5 and the History Channel. He is the author of the ”Nearly Man” which was nominated for a major prize, and has a passion for writing crime fiction. Not that he told me of his feats. He was far too modest.
I had to find out for myself.