Calum Howard is happy to be Aberdeenshire’s jack of all trades after making a playing comeback for the club.
The 32-year-old took over as head groundsman at Mannofield in 2020 and has seldom played for Shire since.
However, at the start of this cricket season last weekend Howard played for Aberdeenshire as they defeated St Modans in their North East Championship opener and Greenock in the Scottish Cup first round.
Although he doesn’t plan on featuring every week, Howard is happy to help the club in any capacity he can.
Aberdeenshire meet Forfarshire 2nds at Mannofield tomorrow and he said: “The start of the season is quite challenging for the club.
“It’s exam time and a lot of our really promising young players aren’t able to play.
“So I’m helping out at the moment by playing and I’ve enjoyed it.
“I don’t think it will be too regular a thing, it’s just a case of me wearing a different hat for Aberdeenshire.
“I do the ground and if they ask me to coach I’ll do it, if they ask me to play I’ll do it and if the ask me to pull pints I’ll do that.
“I’m just filling in a gap for guys that are away. The amount of people connected to the club who do lots of different jobs is remarkable.
“The last three or four years have been tough and people have really stepped up to get things done.
“It’s just a case of mucking in and there are a lot of people at the club who are good at that.
“If there are jobs to be done you have to get on with it and for me playing falls into that bracket at the moment.”
Enjoyment has been rediscovered
Howard, who has also previously featured for Huntly, first joined Aberdeenshire in 2013 but had lost his appetite for playing in recent years.
However, turning out for the Forty Club, a touring club which has district teams right across Britain, has reignited his interest in playing.
Howard added: “Even before I took over as groundsman at Mannofield I wasn’t getting the same enjoyment out of playing that I had been getting before.
“I reached a point where I enjoyed preparing the ground more than I did playing on it.
“Playing intermittently for the Forty Club and has given me the enjoyment for playing again.
“I spend all week trying to give the guys the best possible playing surface and then when things go well on a Saturday or a Sunday that’s a good feeling.
“Last weekend was a good start to the season and it was looking a bit dodgy on the Saturday morning as to whether we’d be able to play.
“But everyone chipped in and thankfully we managed to get it playable.”
North East Championship and Grades round-up
Elsewhere in the North East Championship tomorrow Stoneywood-Dyce look to get their first win of the season when Strathmore visit People’s Park.
Huntly are also at home with Freuchie the opposition at Castle Park. Gordonians travel to St Modans after their opening league fixture was abandoned last Saturday.
In the Grades all of last weekend’s Grade One action was rained off. This week Banchory meet Mannofield, Gordonians tackle Knight Riders, Bon Accord face Crescent, Inverurie play Cults and Master Blasters take on Grammar.
In Grade Two, 3rd Aberdeen Grammar face Grampian in a match between two teams who have made winning starts to the summer.
Dunecht were impressive winners in Grade Three last weekend and travel to Kessock Park to play 2nd Fraserburgh tomorrow.
