page revision date : Sunday 28th june 2009
‘Potts’ pulls no punches in helping The Town do well
Danny Potter has made his cricketing reputation as a hard-hitting opening batsman with current league champions Haverfordwest and with the advent of the 2009 is eager to build on his powerful run-gathering of the last three seasons where he has been fifth, second and sixth in the county’s division one batting averages.
Known to all at The Racecourse as ‘Potts’, he also has something of a reputation as a ‘sledger’ in the field and admits that occasionally he has gone too far with his comments about opposing batsmen from his fielding place close to the wicket – but is trying to tone it down and says that off the field he gets on with the opposition and can only speak highly of many of his rivals like Simon Cole (Cresselly), Rob Williams (Lawrenny), Simon Wood (Carew) and Richard Harris, the Cresselly veteran bowler who always seems to get him out!
“I do have a competitive edge when I am playing,” says Danny, “but I believe that I am a nice person off the field and I enjoy the company of opposing teams as much as anyone
Potter ‘pipped’ and record score
It was Simon Cole who pipped ‘Potts’ to top spot in the batting averages on the very last day of the 2007 season when he had scored 920 runs in league and cup cricket but failed to get going in the last two games and was overhauled by the Cresselly left-hander. Last season saw Danny total over 550 runs and he says that he knows he has to not get out so often when he is well-set but tries to attack too much.
“That is something I need to work at,” says Danny with a chuckle!
With Dai Davies he holds the Haverfordwest best stand record when they opened the batting against Lamphey and he scored 102 not out in a partnership of 230-plus, his only century so far but he has quite a few innings in the 90s, including 95 not out against Hundleton in the Harrison-Allen Bowl and 91 not out against Lawrenny in the league.
Long wait for a duck
But he’s also experienced the lows of batting and can laugh against himself as he tells the story of a recent county appearance:
“We played against the South Wales League and I was chosen to bat No 3 behind Will Beresford (Llangwm) and Phil Williams (Cresselly), who proceeded to put on 160 runs as I sat with the pads on for 35 overs. I walked out to the wicket, took guard and faced the first ball – and was soon walking back to the pavilion as I was out without scoring a single run, caught off a really slow ball!”
He also relates the story of a painful experience as a youngster playing for the third team at Narberth and forgetting to put a ‘box’ on – and learning a very painful lesson when the ball inevitably hit him hard in the groin area!
Danny strikes for the club
Danny also plays football for the Haverfordwest Cricket Club as a striker but with the recent arrival of baby Madison to him and partner Pamela the round-ball game has taken a back seat. He has scored five goals in a match against Pembroke United and his top haul for a season is a pretty useful 31 goals for the Cricket Club. He also played for Haverfordwest County at one stage but again his humour comes to the fore when he says he hasn’t a single football trophy – but he has his fair share of silverware in the summer as he has four league winners’ medals, one Harrison-Allen Bowl winners’ trophy, about four or five Duggie Morris Cup Final successes and three Alec Colley Cup Final wins when he was younger and playing in the second team.
Good advice in
learning his trade
He started out in cricket with Ross Dewstowe and it was Ross’s dad Micky who got Danny playing at Haverfordwest, his only club – where he missed out on an Ormond Youth Cup winners’ medal because he injured his wrist, He learned his batting trade when he first played senior cricket at 13 and had no shortage of advice from old pros like Stuart Williams, Tacky Marchant and Micky Dewstowe.
Then it was on to first team action and a first season where he batted in every position from opening to No 9 before staking a claim for the opening bat position when Johnny Griffiths got injured. He’s been there ever since and last year was vice-captain to Nick Dyer, the former Scottish international who had played in the World Cup.
“I learned a great deal from Nick and was delighted when we won the league. I feel I contributed with the bat and in the field and it is my ambition to captain Haverfordwest Cricket Club in the future. I love practising in the nets (I would do it every day if work allowed!) and I would certainly encourage a full pre-match practice, as Nick did last year. But that is in the future and in the meanwhile I am looking forward to batting well under new skipper Huw Scriven, who will do a great job of motivating the team. I’m happy to help the club in any way I can and can’t wait for the first match to get under way.”
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