'˜Pub player' turned multiple league winner calls it a day

A long-serving Hastings Priory cricketer has announced his retirement after 21 years with the club.
Mick Glazier has retired from playing after 21 years at Hastings Priory Cricket ClubMick Glazier has retired from playing after 21 years at Hastings Priory Cricket Club
Mick Glazier has retired from playing after 21 years at Hastings Priory Cricket Club

Mick Glazier has decided to call time on his successful playing career at the age of 50 because of a persistent knee injury.

He said: “My brain wants to do it, but the body says ‘no way’. I’ve had ripped cartilage for over a year, a year-and-a-half. I tried to get myself fit over the winter, but I went to nets and it wasn’t having any of it.

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“It’s an impact thing and the after-effects are the problem. Even if I bowl and then go and field it just stiffens up. I’m not going to go into the 2s and take overs away from kids.”

Glazier’s career is a remarkable tale of, in his own words, a ‘pub player’ developing into one of the leading bowlers in the Sussex League who has claimed the wickets of some top international players.

Way back in 1981 Glazier was playing friendly cricket for Clive Vale on the East Hill. He subsequently had a couple of years with Hastings Wanderers and a year with The Ridge before joining Priory in the mid-1990s.

He bowled medium pace until Bob Phillips, a prolific Priory batsman for many years, said to him, ‘you might as well walk in and get hit for four instead of running in’.

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Glazier took Phillips up on his suggestion and taught himself to bowl left-arm spin. He broke into the first team in 1999 and went from strength to strength thereafter.

“Tim Eldridge brought me through and Jason (Finch) tweaked it, he did a lot of work with me,” continued Glazier, who took 320 league wickets down the years and holds the rare distinction of recording five-wicket hauls against every team he’s played against in the Sussex League.

Glazier bagged seven wickets against Eastbourne in 2010 - a year when he picked up 45 wickets in total - and against Three Bridges in 2009 and 2008. In fact, he took more league wickets in 2008 than team-mate Chris Morris, who has starred for South Africa this winter and is currently playing in the IPL.

Glazier has claimed the prize scalps of Herschelle Gibbs, Jimmy Adams and David Hussey, seasoned former international batsmen for South Africa, West Indies and Australia respectively.

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He has also played alongside some top talent for Priory such as Nick Wilton, Tim van Noort, Andy Cornford, Finch, Richard Jackson, Kirk Wernars, Morne van Wyk and Morris.

Glazier has won four Sussex League titles in total for the Horntye Park-based club and been a runner-up in the Sussex Cup on three occasions. He has also amassed 98 ‘not outs’ with the bat.

A competitive figure on the field but a real character off it, Glazier has spent much of his working life as a fisherman. He would often arrive at games after heading out to sea in the hours of the morning and on many occasions caught up on some sleep in the dressing room while his team-mates were batting.

Although he will no longer be playing, Hastings-based Glazier will remain involved with Priory by coaching the spinners and travelling with the first team on matchdays to offer his expertise.

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