Will to win kept Warren coming back to Bootle

Jul 26 2008 by Our Correspondent, Liverpool Daily Post

THIS is Adam Warren’s final cricket season.

Come the autumn the 33-year-old Firwood Bootle all-rounder will set off for a new life as a sales executive in Los Angeles and while there may be cricket in the United States, it is not for him.

Warren, it must be understood, needs to play for very serious teams who burn with a desire to win trophies. His three club sides, Randwick and St Kilda in Australia, Bootle in England, have fitted the bill perfectly. The marriage between Warren and the Wadham Road club, in particular, was made in cricketing heaven. And while there will soon be an amicable separation there will never be a divorce.

Since becoming eligible for adult teams Warren reckons he has played 27 seasons of club cricket, of which two have been for St Helens Recs and nine for Bootle. He has the warmest memories of his teenage years at Ruskin Drive but attributes his comparative longevity in the recreational game to the very simple approach which Ian Cockbain has inculcated at Wadham Road.

“I don’t think I could have spent this many seasons at a club where there wasn’t something to play for every week,” he said. “I know there are places where the professional comes over and the club accepts that the first team will finish seventh and they want the overseas player to have a good time. If I played at a club like that, I’d have stopped five or six years ago.

“The incentive at Bootle is having something to win. We’ve got to try and win everything basically. I have no interest in finishing seventh.”

Warren’s performances have demonstrated this cold-eyed intensity of purpose. Even in a Bootle team crammed to bursting with cricketing talent, he has done more than most over the last decade to ensure that Bootle places a regular order for silver polish each September.

He leads the bowling attack, he is an attacking batsman and he drops catches about as often as David Beckham buys clothes from Oxfam shops. But there is even more to Warren’s cricket than his obvious ability. He is the leader of Ian Cockbain’s ravenous pack, a symbol of his side’s refusal to yield, a flagship cricketer.

It is thus no wonder that the Bootle captain used all his persuasive ability to cajole the Australian to return for a final year. Cockbain is retiring at the end of the season too and he wanted Warren to help him win more trophies.

“He’s the ideal club professional and it’s never entered our heads to engage another overseas player when Adam was available,” said Cockbain. “He’s exemplary with the younger cricketers, he’s never injured and he tries his heart out. Adam Warren epitomises the Bootle spirit. Whenever you need him, he performs.”

As an example of Warren’s ability to change the course of games – sometimes, one feels, as much by his presence as by any other quality – Cockbain cites last year’s Lancashire Cup Final at Greenmount.

Defending a respectable total on a helpful wicket, Bootle were, Cockbain admits, “losing their way in mid-innings” and needed a breakthrough. “I said to him, ‘You’ve got two overs, try and get the pro out for me please Adam.’ He got him lbw fourth ball.” Bootle won.

And having secured the county cup four years on the trot, Bootle are now attempting to win it for a fifth time. Along with a third successive ECB Premier League title. And the League Knock-Out.

“We’ve got a lot to play for over the next two months,” said Warren. In other words, one of the very best cricketers in the Business Assistance Liverpool Competition is getting precisely the sort of farewell tour he needs.

FIXTURES: TODAY: Business Assistance Liverpool Competition ECB Premier League: Fleetwood Hesketh v Bootle, Lytham v St Helens Recs, Northern v New Brighton, Ormskirk v Colwyn Bay, Prestatyn v Maghull, Southport and Birkdale v Hightown, Wallasey v Formby.

First Division: Ainsdale v St Helens, Huyton v Liverpool, Leigh v Orrell Red Triangle, Newton-le-Willows v Wavertree, Northop Hall v Wigan, Rainford v Highfield, Skelmersdale v Sefton Park.