From Nyewood Lane to Lord's... How Dan Lincoln rose from non-league football to an Ashes Test

JAMES COYNE: The 24-year-old is no ordinary England 12th man. He has been on Reading and Arsenal’s books and was playing non-league football a few weeks before being asked to fill AB de Villiers’ shoes

It’s the kind of thing that, a few decades ago, was just taken for granted.

So England’s 12th man – any England player, for that matter – plays non-league football in winter. So what? Don’t they all?

Not now. Such is the professionalism in both sports – not to mention the seemingly never-ending football season – that it is deemed impossible to play a decent level of football and cricket simultaneously.

Which is a shame, because the pre-match kickabouts played in training show there are some very handy footballers in the England cricket team.

Then think of the decent cricketers lost to the game – Phil Neville, Joe Hart and Ben Chilwell – due to football demanding so much from them.

But it seems like one non-league footballer has had a bit of a rethink. And, when England come to pick their teams for those warm-up kickabouts, they’ll be jostling to get Dan Lincoln in their side.

He was a trainee at Reading – there’s YouTube footage from April 2015 of him tipping a shot from Arsenal’s Jack Wilshere over the bar in an U21s game. After he was part of a mass clearout of players in August 2015, he went to Arsenal for a year, then joined the non-league circuit: Hayes & Yeading, Basingstoke Town, Braintree Town and most recently Bognor Regis Town.

“Football was always the main priority for me,” he told The Cricketer. “I always loved and enjoyed cricket, but I never took it too seriously, so I was able to accommodate it. I admit that my knowledge base and connections in cricket aren’t all that high.

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“At 16 I had a choice to make. I was playing for Berkshire age-groups and their seconds. But I was offered a scholarship at Reading and I felt compelled to take it. They were pretty good terms. And it was all that I wanted it to be at the time.”

But, unlike so many, Lincoln always tried to sneak in as much cricket as he could for his hometown club, Finchampstead, in Berkshire.

“I’ve always been at Finch, since I was five or six. I played my first senior game when I was 10. I live five minutes from the club. I love being down there.

“I always saw it as a break from football. We’d get to the end of the football season and my parents would say ‘OK, let’s take a holiday now’, and I’d be like, ‘No, I want to sneak in a couple of cricket games at the weekend’. So I’ve missed a lot of summer holidays over the years trying to play both sports.

“Usually I’d play some club cricket or minor counties, and then be back to football training in mid-July, plus trying to play as much evening midweek cricket as I could.”

One thing he could usually rely on is bemused looks in the football dressing-room.

“Most footballers don’t understand why I’d play cricket,” he says. “A few of them do get it – maybe if they played when they were younger or they know people who like it.

It’s gunna be a tough old week recovering to get back in Yellow for Saturday, but I’m always up for a challenge!! I’d like to thank everyone involved in looking after me and attending to me ON and OFF the pitch. Was a real touch of class to see Jack Pearce at the Hospital for me pic.twitter.com/ITo9PGMZUr

— Dan Lincoln (@Dan1Lincoln) February 3, 2018

“But a lot of them just see cricket as so slow and boring. They have no idea what it’s like, how fast T20 is.

“Most of them down at Bognor probably don’t realise the extent of my cricket. Some people do give me a bit of s*** about it. Some even say some nice things! But I’m quite a private person so I just get on with it. I crack on.”

And that’s the way it was for eight years. Yet Lincoln was always playing a very high standard of club cricket in the Home Counties Premier League, and making runs for a Berkshire side sweeping most before them: this year they are on course for a fourth successive Minor Counties Championship and a possible double of the One-Day Knockout Trophy. Lincoln was always likely to catch the eye of someone linked to a first-class county, especially with Berkshire and Middlesex strengthening ties in recent times.

“I think it helped that I had a good summer last year,” he says. “I was averaging 80-odd in the Home Counties League, and I’d done well with Berkshire.

“I got quick runs in a match against Glamorgan 2s, then 121 not out off 40 balls in another 2s game. Middlesex said, ‘we’d like to see you more often’.

“People around me at Berkshire would sometimes say, ‘no one’s come in for you because you’re not playing enough’. People had the impression that I have a few knocks and then go back to football.

“So last winter I made a deliberate ploy to train over the winter and make sure I was in the best possible condition for the start of April. I did a load of work at Berkshire. I’d be training two to three nights a week in winter. I thought I’d chase the cricket this time. I’m not one to wait around and see what happens.

^{Dan Lincoln came in for AB de Villiers for Middlesex}

“The Middlesex coaching staff changed over the winter, which maybe slowed things down a bit, and meant I had to build new relationships. But I had a good hit in a pre-season game for Berkshire against Middlesex 2s [94 off 102 balls at Wormsley].

“Hampshire were interested, but I’m closer geographically to Middlesex – mind you the drive into Lord’s or Southgate isn’t always that smooth. But I have a few mates there.

“It’s more relaxed than I expected, but still very professional. I didn’t expect too much from it – I just concentrated on doing what was expected of me at this level. Cricket’s always been a sport I’ve loved and enjoyed, but I’d never trained as part of a professional group before.”

This season he was scoring consistently for Finch, Berkshire and Middlesex seconds. Then he got the call: with AB de Villiers going down with a hand injury in the first London derby, Middlesex wanted to register Lincoln for the Vitality Blast. No pressure filling AB’s shoes at No.3…

“It’s been amazing. I haven’t had a chance to play alongside de Villiers yet,” he says. “But I’ve met, trained and played with all the other guys.

“The biggest compliment I can give is that when you walk in that dressing-room – and OK, it might be at Lord’s – the atmosphere is like walking into your [cricket] club dressing-room on a Saturday afternoon. It’s professional, but football dressing-rooms aren’t always as friendly.

“No one had any problems with me entering that environment. They encouraged me to play my game and trust the skills that got me here, to get on with it and just enjoy it.

“I think it helps a lot that it’s T20 – a game that whizzes along at 100mph, and it’s all about using your skills and trying to see what you can get away without on the field.”

On debut at Cheltenham, he struck a more than useful 30 from 24 balls, batting alongside Stevie Eskinazi. He struck former Middlesex man Ryan Higgins for a straight six but was caught at deep midwicket next ball. But Gloucestershire sneaked home by two wickets.

“It helped that I’d played with a few of the boys out there, on both sides. I came off the field thinking there was plenty more runs out there for me, which was frustrating but also rewarding at the same time.”

^{Dan Lincoln in action against Worthing (credit: Tommy McMillan)}

The pace of Glamorgan’s Marchant de Lange did for Lincoln for just eight at Cardiff, though he did take two very fine catches out on the straight boundary to help Toby Roland-Jones to a hat-trick in a Middlesex win. It may well have been the moment that sealed his place as one of England’s sub fielders at Lord’s.

“I’m proud of that catch. Unfortunately, it seems to have been missed by all the cameras – none of them were fixed on that part of the ground. I got plenty of applause from the crowd, though.

“I’ve taken a few good ones in my time. In club cricket, a lot of the other guys have had a busy week, and I’m skippering, so I just tend to field wherever makes sense.

“But I had a long chat with [Middlesex assistant coach] Nic Pothas, mainly about fielding. I’m used to fielding in the hotspots – whether that’s backward point, or long-on to long-on, depending on who’s batting. Wherever the ball is going, basically.

“I’m sure some of it comes from the football side of it – the athleticism and reaction-time you need as a goalkeeper, plus always being in the game. I love it.”

His third Blast innings was a two-ball duck, bowled by Sussex’s Ollie Robinson, and he may find further opportunities squeezed after Middlesex brought in Mohammad Hafeez, the experienced Pakistan allrounder, as a locum overseas until de Villiers returns for the run-in.

But there’s still that carrot of possible appearance at T20 finals day with Middlesex – this for a man who would ordinarily have reported back for pre-season training with Bognor by now.

“I’m 24 now, and I’ve done eight seasons of football and cricket back to back. If you bear in mind that’s eight or nine months of football each year, that’s quite a lot.

“This summer I haven’t really been in touch with Bognor. I just thought I’d leave it and see how it goes when this season finishes at Middlesex. I’ve heard Bognor are looking at a few other keepers…

“My girlfriend likes to go travelling, and in the past she has been away a couple of times without me. She’s very understanding about me playing sport. Luckily she likes to come down and watch me play cricket alongside my parents. If she wasn’t as understanding then it might not work. We probably do deserve a holiday at some stage.”

^{Dan Lincoln prior to the Sussex Senior Cup win over Burgess Hill Town (Credit: Tommy McMillan)}

Football fans who claim too much protection is given to goalkeepers might find Lincoln on the other side of the argument. In February 2018, he suffered a serious neck injury and cuts to his back when trampled on by Truro City players as he scrambled to prevent a goal 10 minutes from time.

The match was suspended while Lincoln received treatment, and he was rushed to the hospital; play did not resume until 5.35pm. Never mind the Bognor Regis Observer; the story also reached at least one national online outlet.

And just this March he was referred to a facial reconstructive surgeon after a Wingate & Finchley player caught him in the face with a high boot.

“There was massive hype when I put that stuff out on Twitter after my back injury. Rugby players were tweeting me saying ‘you don’t know what it’s like’ and that sort of thing. The newspapers were all over it.

“But I did get stretchered off and for a while there was no feeling in my face. I didn't know if I'd fractured something. There was no feeling from my shoulders up; it only came back after a good couple of hours.

“There were cuts on my back, and blood was p****** out of them until they scabbed over. I’ve still got scratches and scars on my back now. I’ve lost a chunk out of my lip, which I have to cover up a bit with my ’tache because hair doesn’t grow out of it anymore.

“So it wasn’t a small injury. Having said all that, it is part and parcel of the game.”

The reality is that, while playing all this semi-professional sport was great fun, Lincoln had to earn enough money to live off. He has his own football and cricket coaching company, which does one-on-one coaching and an autumn contract with Eton College.

He says: “I initially did it to fill time between playing and to keep busy, aged 20 and 21, to earn a little bit of cash for myself – and to pay the bills for running my car, paying off the mortgage, all of that… I pass on a bit of cash to other lads who are helping me, especially in summer with all the playing and travelling I do.

“As I got older I realised how I could make it work as a career, and that’s why I set up my own company and got all the coaching badges in both sports.

“All in all, I’ve realised there are bigger things in life than just playing football.”

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