Fair Oak's Jamie Cumming followed Alex Bass into Football League goalkeeping Fair Oak can be justly proud of their cricket youth development programme and their conveyor belt of local talent into their Southern Premier and Hampshire League teams.
But its little known that, as a virtual side show, they are also grooming Football League goalkeepers.
How bizarre then that in the first round of the Carabao Cup last Saturday both the Portsmouth and Stevenage Town goalkeepers should have played the summer game for Fair Oak !
Alex Bass donned for Pompey goalkeeper’s jersey (well, for 45 minutes at any rate) while, at the opposite end of the field, one-time Oaks clubmate Jamie Cumming (on loan from Chelsea) was in goal for the reprieved Hertfordshire League Two outfit.
Bass experienced a nightmare opening 45 minutes in the soulless, empty Lamex Stadium, where he was substituted at half-time with Pompey 3-1 down. His replacement Craig MacGillvray went on to become the hero of the hour, saving three penalties in the spot-kick shoot out after Pompey had clawed back the deficit to draw 3-3 at full-time.
Perhaps, as he sought solace in the main stand, Bass gazed into the late summer Hertfordshire sunshine and reflected on his cricketing past – as a Hampshire age group wicketkeeper/batsman, gloveman in his county Under-16 days to Hampshire and past England leg spinner Mason Crane and sharing the same dressing room as Tom Alsop, Michael Bates, Oli Soames and Brad Taylor.
Under rated
Bass, now 22, played for Hampshire from under-nine’s onwards. His family are woven through the Fair Oak fabric with father Ian and elder brother Nick still playing – and mum Joe often making the teas !
He admits that cricket was his first love – he was a very under-rated batsman with excellent hand-eye glove coordination – and made a Southern Premier League fifty against Bashley (Rydal) in 2013. But when Pompey came calling, cricket took a back seat, though he still turns out occasionally and bagged a Hampshire League 85 against Hayling Island two summers ago.
Cumming, who turns 21 on Friday, is two years younger than Bass and made 15 appearances behind the stumps for Fair Oak in his teens, four of them in the SPL – against Alton, South Wilts, Tichborne Park and Waterlooville - in July 2014, when he was just 14 at studying at Wyvern School !
Cumming joined Chelsea at the age of eight, enrolling in the club's development programme. He progressed through the various age groups at Stamford Bridge and, having won successive FA Youth Cup winning medals, was capped three times by England at youth international level.
He was understudy to Kepa Arrizabalaga and Willy Caballero last term, and was named on the substitute's bench for Chelsea's 4–1 UEFA Europa League Final victory over Arsenal in Baku on 29 May 2019 and then against Bayern Munich in the club’s Champions League exit in early August.
Eager to get on-pitch first team experience, he recently joined Stevenage Town on a season-long loan and immediately found himself in that debut-making penalty shoot-out gallery against Pompey.
How bizarre his Fair Oak cricket club-mate Alex Bass should have played in the same Carabao Cup tie. It’s unlikely, but unconfirmed, that the pair played cricket together in their formative Lapstone Park days ….
But its little known that, as a virtual side show, they are also grooming Football League goalkeepers.
How bizarre then that in the first round of the Carabao Cup last Saturday both the Portsmouth and Stevenage Town goalkeepers should have played the summer game for Fair Oak !
Alex Bass donned for Pompey goalkeeper’s jersey (well, for 45 minutes at any rate) while, at the opposite end of the field, one-time Oaks clubmate Jamie Cumming (on loan from Chelsea) was in goal for the reprieved Hertfordshire League Two outfit.
Bass experienced a nightmare opening 45 minutes in the soulless, empty Lamex Stadium, where he was substituted at half-time with Pompey 3-1 down. His replacement Craig MacGillvray went on to become the hero of the hour, saving three penalties in the spot-kick shoot out after Pompey had clawed back the deficit to draw 3-3 at full-time.
Perhaps, as he sought solace in the main stand, Bass gazed into the late summer Hertfordshire sunshine and reflected on his cricketing past – as a Hampshire age group wicketkeeper/batsman, gloveman in his county Under-16 days to Hampshire and past England leg spinner Mason Crane and sharing the same dressing room as Tom Alsop, Michael Bates, Oli Soames and Brad Taylor.
Under rated
Bass, now 22, played for Hampshire from under-nine’s onwards. His family are woven through the Fair Oak fabric with father Ian and elder brother Nick still playing – and mum Joe often making the teas !
He admits that cricket was his first love – he was a very under-rated batsman with excellent hand-eye glove coordination – and made a Southern Premier League fifty against Bashley (Rydal) in 2013. But when Pompey came calling, cricket took a back seat, though he still turns out occasionally and bagged a Hampshire League 85 against Hayling Island two summers ago.
Cumming, who turns 21 on Friday, is two years younger than Bass and made 15 appearances behind the stumps for Fair Oak in his teens, four of them in the SPL – against Alton, South Wilts, Tichborne Park and Waterlooville - in July 2014, when he was just 14 at studying at Wyvern School !
Cumming joined Chelsea at the age of eight, enrolling in the club's development programme. He progressed through the various age groups at Stamford Bridge and, having won successive FA Youth Cup winning medals, was capped three times by England at youth international level.
He was understudy to Kepa Arrizabalaga and Willy Caballero last term, and was named on the substitute's bench for Chelsea's 4–1 UEFA Europa League Final victory over Arsenal in Baku on 29 May 2019 and then against Bayern Munich in the club’s Champions League exit in early August.
Eager to get on-pitch first team experience, he recently joined Stevenage Town on a season-long loan and immediately found himself in that debut-making penalty shoot-out gallery against Pompey.
How bizarre his Fair Oak cricket club-mate Alex Bass should have played in the same Carabao Cup tie. It’s unlikely, but unconfirmed, that the pair played cricket together in their formative Lapstone Park days ….
