Josh Blake: From full-time community coach to Surrey's first-team wicketkeeper

"It sounds like a lot," says Josh Blake, wearing a grin that has scarcely departed his face in the last month. If good things do truly happen to good people, then Surrey's new wicketkeeper is a deserving beneficiary.

Until Alec Stewart tapped him on the shoulder at the end of June – the news was only publicised a fortnight later in the middle of July that he would be signing professional terms with Surrey – Blake was a community coach for the county, working out of schools and local clubs all across the region, using his spare time to play for the second team and train when the circumstances allowed.

His timesheet shows 578 hours of Chance to Shine sessions delivered in 2022 alone, 2,880 primary school children reached. He hopes he's had an impact, and he hopes people fully appreciate the good done by the charity.

"On top of that," he adds, "I was helping with Surrey Under-11s through the winter and that kind of thing. I was working for Neil Stewart and other people as well doing coaching. It's a lot of cricket. But it did give me the opportunity to train at places where I was working, which helped. I had to fit it in around that. I trained at my club, which has always been big for me; they've always let me have the nets when I've needed them.

"There were some late nights training, but I wouldn't do it if I didn't want to.

"There were some days in the winter where I was doing 9am to 3pm at a school and then coaching from 6pm to 8.30pm at the Stewart Cricket Centre. But I did love that. It wasn't like I didn't enjoy it; sometimes it was tough, but that's like everything."

It would be hard to admire someone more than to see what to now be a professional cricketer means to a 23-year-old who fell out of Surrey's pathway system at 15 and worked his way back in from the outside, before deciding that – in whichever capacity possible – he was going to involve himself in cricket. He is getting his reward now from a game to which he has given plenty.

^{Josh Blake signed a professional contract with Surrey ahead of the Royal London Cup (Steve Bardens/Getty Images)}

Four years on from beginning work at the Surrey Cricket Foundation, here he is, keeping wicket in the Royal London Cup, training with Ben Foakes, sharing a dressing room with Jason Roy – "I had all these role models in the dressing room when I was younger, now being part of the changing room is amazing" – and learning off Stewart. For a Surrey boy, who wintered twice in Australia to get his game in order and continued to churn out the runs for Sutton, his lifetime club, it's been a whirlwind month and a pipedream realised.

Cricketers remaining at their clubs after retirement is no big deal – Gareth Batty retired last autumn and is now the county's interim head coach, before him Vikram Solanki's post-playing route was similar – but not many do the opposite, swapping an off-field role and office Christmas parties for the first team. "It is a change of pace," he smiles, "but it's nice to dial in and really focus on the cricket where I might not have had that opportunity in the past. It is an interesting transition."

Blake is raw but talented; this hasn't come out of the blue but rather on the back of a year-and-a-half's evidence of second-team runs. He was averaging just under 60 for the summer when this opportunity appeared for a left-handed middle-order batter. Several on the fringes of the circuit have been handed temporary, short-term deals to help their counties through the Royal London Cup, but Blake's contract is for two-and-a-half years. He has rewarded that faith with scores of 36, 40 and 44 in five innings – sandwiching successive ducks – only a couple of months after making 188 against Gloucestershire's second string.

In a way, it has been an ideal introduction to the first-team game; the situation is such that Surrey have been left with a decimated, youthful squad cut so thin that teenagers Sheridon Gumbs, Yousef Majid and Tim Lloyd have all been registered specifically to add much-needed depth. So, Blake has been far from alone in learning on the job, while simultaneously gaining confidence from playing against seasoned pros from around the circuit.

"I've always thought that I could compete," he says, "but being involved last year was where it almost clicked, playing a little bit in the second team, seeing the level that some people were at.

"I played a game with Ben Foakes at the end of last season when he came back from injury. Seeing the way that those guys go about their game, I can then go away and work at it and try to match that to the best of my ability. That opportunity to see it and be around it has really helped get me to a place where I feel like I can compete and contribute to the team."

^{Blake previously worked for Chance to Shine and the Surrey Cricket Foundation (Ben Hoskins/Getty Images)}

There is an enormous sense of pride in getting to this point the hard way – not only in training when he could find a spare moment, but in being bypassed for the academy and knocking the door down through club runs and graft. "This was always the goal," he says. "It's always what I wanted to do and what I was working towards."

But if you work in cricket – and Blake did just that – you know that time is of the essence: "It's less attainable once you get to my age, but I've had a strange route into the game. It just goes to show. It does happen."

The average age for the end of a professional career is 26, and Blake began this season three birthdays away from that point, wary that some might have considered him to have missed the boat. But he points to the example of Louis Kimber, the older brother of his Surrey teammate, Nick, who only made his professional debut for Leicestershire last summer at the age of 24, as proof that it's never too late, especially if this is the ultimate ambition.

For that, the Royal London Cup is the perfect vehicle: its leading wicket-taker, Ari Karvelas, is a 28-year-old cricketing nomad for whom this opening has taken five years longer. At the other end of the spectrum, schoolboys Gumbs and Majid have been seriously impressive, from nowhere fast-tracking themselves into Surrey's thoughts.

Blake is midway between those two journeys – neither teenager nor serial trialist – but in one way or another, the game has been his whole life: he credits his father – "a cricket nut" with getting him obsessed and he has been a member at Sutton since he was six. "It's my home, if you will." That sentiment will resonate with many: until the build-up began for the Royal London Cup, he had been an ever-present in the Surrey Championship at his boyhood club. "I still go down and watch," he adds.

"I love being part of it. When I was younger, even seeing Jamie Smith – who's a year younger than me – going from playing club cricket to county cricket was nice to see. Seeing that happen to other players spurred me on, so hopefully I can do the same."

That character trait is deep-rooted, and there is a heartening awareness of the example that he now represents to the youngsters who fell under his tutelage. "It is important." Only a couple of months ago, Issy Wong and Lauren Bell made their international debuts together, the first full Chance to Shine graduates to play for England. Indeed, when Blake was a Year Five pupil, he came through the programmes himself. "I did it as a kid – I still remember it," he says.

^{Blake made his List A debut in Surrey's defeat by Leicestershire (Ben Hoskins/Getty Images)}

"It was awesome to do it and see kids go through cricket because of it. They are familiar with the game but might not know where they can play, and it's bridging that gap. It's fantastic to be part of – with things now like All Stars and Dynamos, that's bridging the gap from schools, and then it's getting them into club cricket. You can really see it, and it's quite fulfilling to see that.

"I love doing it. I really enjoyed it, and that's what I'd like to do further down the line if the opportunity presents itself."

Not many on Blake's side of the fence can speak about the grassroots game with such integrity and understanding, and he knows he has the potential to inspire through his story of rooting for the next generation but now being able to write his own chapter.

"I suppose Chance to Shine could be the start of a cricketing journey," he reflects. "It's nice to be a bit of a role model, if you will. I always had that when I was that age; I always looked up to Surrey players and my coaches.

"It's cool to be on the other end of that. But it's more than just the playing side of things – it's getting people into watching the games, learning leadership skills, gaining social skills. There's a lot to it, and it's going the right way – it's getting better and better."

Blake lives in Sutton but growing the game has taken him to venues between inner London and "leafy Surrey" across a range of age-groups. He knows Chevy Green well, now director of programmes for ACE but formerly participation manager for the Surrey Cricket Foundation, and they have worked together on competitions. "He's a top man," Blake smiles. "He's done fantastically well; the ACE Programme is going really well, which is a testament to his work. Obviously, he's moved onto bigger and better things."

So, too, has Blake, community coach turned Surrey wicketkeeper, hardly your average county cricketer.

"Growing up, you walk in at the Alec Stewart Gate," he recalls. Now, via the path less trodden, into professional cricket through the backdoor, Stewart is his boss. "It is pretty cool."

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