Ashish Jayes – a great addition to Fishguard & Pembrokeshire Cricket

 


When Pembroke County Cricket Club held its annual match against the Welsh region of the MCC at Whitland one of the outstanding successes in his first county outing as Ashish Jeyes, who bowled a decent five-over spell when the visitors were batting and then top scored when Pembrokeshire batted.
 
Ashish had stroked five fours and three sixes in his stylish 49 but was then adjudged lbw to be denied a maiden half century - and the county selectors had done very well in giving him the chance to play at this level because Ashish plays for Fishguard & Goodwick in the second division, having helped them to promotion the previous year.
 

His arrival caused a bit of a stir . . .

 
He is a very young-looking 40 years of age and is very quick between the wickets - and his arrival at Fishguard caused a bit of a stir because I remember speaking a short while afterwards to Nigel Delaney, who is heavily involved with the club alongside Russell Jones and Matthew ‘Minty’ Lamb - and he mentioned that they had acquired a very talented player who had come to live in the town and was keen to play after ten years of cricket inactivity.
 
Their assessment proved correct because it wasn’t long before Ashish was featuring in our weekend reports of matches, starting off with 36 runs on his debut, where he regularly scored runs but also took over 40 wickets with his medium-paced deliveries.
 

. . . And resulted in a call-up for the county team

 
This has continued this campaign, especially in terms of batting because he scored centuries at both Pembroke and Johnston, as well as a 4 for 16 haul at Pembroke Dock. These feats were spotted by Richard Merriman and his co-selectors and when the invitation was passed on to Russell Jones and then to Ashish, he accepted like a shot - and although he admitted to PembrokeshireSport.co.uk that he was very nervous he soon settled in and we enjoyed a chat with him at tea!
 
It is also good to report that he had support at the match .from his club because making the long journey from Fishguard to cheer him on were Russell and ‘Minty’ plus young player Matty Delaney, who was there with his partner and two-week old baby. Dad Nigel would also have been there but he was playing football ‘up the line’!!
 

 Ashish took every chance to play cricket

 
Ashish originally hails from Kerala, the huge state in the South-West corner of India renowned for its beautiful scenery and cultural heritage - and he started playing cricket at 11, but there was no established coaching programme and games took place on an ad hoc basis where small clubs played 20 over a side games on pitches where matting was used because the fields were also used for other recreational purposes at other times.
 
“It meant that games were often a fairly long distance away and transport was limited,” Ashish said, “so as youngsters had to be dedicated, particularly since my family weren’t involved in cricket and were kept very busy on the farm.
 
“As I grew older and began to make a name for myself it was common to receive phone calls inviting me to play some distance away and I was soon making centuries, with a top score of 162 not out - and  once claimed 6 for 8 with my bowling – and I was always paid expenses to cover the heavy cost of transport.”
 

Cricket in London – and a ten-year gap

 
But Ashish’s cricket was limited when he was studying for his Hotel Management degree, in the state of Mangalore, just above Kerala, and then at 24 because he came to London to study for his Masters’ Degree in Catering at the South Bank University.
 
“There was a huge amount of cricket being played by teams from India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka and England,” Ashish told us, “and was sometimes over-competitive in terms of appealing and putting pressure on umpires, which I didn’t like.
 
“I played for a while in the National Cricket League, which was a high standard - and I once played in a charity match on the side ground at Lord’s, which of course was an amazing experience.
 
“I also loved playing indoor cricket for The Royal Mail team from Romford and it was played on the same format as in Pembrokeshire so I am hoping to persuade Fishguard & Goodwick to have a team in the winter.”
 
But in 2017 Ashish left the UK to work for four years in Dubai, where he was a chef at the famous Marriott Hotel- but there was no cricket there so he returned to India but eventually decided he would like to return to the UK and saw a job as head chief at Bluestone, applied and was soon on his way to Pembrokeshire with his wife Sruthi, plus daughter Aashraya (13) and son Aashrith (7) .
 

Other Sports

 
Both children are already showing an interest in sport and Ashish and Sruthi will give them every encouragement in whatever they do. In his own younger days, he also enjoyed volleyball, football (he has already played a game for The Sports 2nds in a friendly) and was a more then useful sprinter in athletics.
 
In fact, when he was in school and college he competed in the 100 metres – with a best time of 10.9 seconds, which earned him a bronze medal in the national inter-college championships. He was delighted to be awarded his medal but then it was ‘borrowed’ by his college to go on display and he never got it back!
 

And finally . . .

 
Chat to Ashish for a short while and his enthusiasm for cricket shines through so he is delighted that his shift patterns at Bluestone will allow him to play.

“They are very good employers and it is great that I can enjoy my work and also my favourite form of relaxation. I feel I am very lucky to live in Fishguard and will always do my very best for the cricket club because they have really great characters who have looked after me from the start.”
 
We at pembrokeshireSport.co.uk are confident that Ashish Jayes will do just that and we were delighted to present him with our ‘Sporting Star’ badge because he really is a gentleman of the game and must be welcomed with open arms!