In the winter of 1992 Westbury Cricket Club invited some players from Swindon to their annual dinner and I went along and listened to the legendary scorer and statistician, Bill Frindall, talk and bought one of his books at the end. Within the book was a flyer advertising scoresheets of his Tests which he had scored and, as a small Christmas present, my mother bought me the one of Bob Massie's match at Lord's in 1972. I may have been bamboozled by the scoring method but this £6.99 present was a life-changing gift.

Four years later Bill's wife, Debbie, wrote to me saying that, as I had bought Bill's score sheets and as I lived close by, would I be in a position to score as Debbie was looking after their six month old daughter, Alice. I still had no idea how to use Bill's scoring method but naturally I couldn't turn down the chance and I learnt. I scored for Bill for the first time at Devizes and one thing after another came my way. I became Bill's scorer - think of that: THE scorer's scorer - when he commentated, his travel agent through my day job, helped him for the last two years of his life with Playfair, became an M.C.C Member, scored for the B.B.C at Nat West quarter-final matches at Lord's, The Oval and Blackpool and compiled the statistics for The Lord's Taverners for their 60th Anniversary in 2010. It was a roller-coaster ride and, in Bill, there was no better mentor and host and we became very close friends and shared the same principles. I am sure that I was not the only one devastated at his sudden death in January 2009 but was pleased to follow in his footsteps as the next scorer and commentator at the annual Lord's Taverners trip to Dubai which is so generously funded by Emirates Airline.

My B.B.C debut at Lord's had Vic Marks summarising and, in my pre-match nervousness, let on to Simon Mann that Vic had taught me Latin. After half an hour and, whilst on air, Simon gave Vic some Latin to translate amid much mirth from all around - including Frindall in Birmingham at the other quarter-final - and excuses from Vic and I wondered what on earth I had let myself in for.

I had my come-uppance later from Vic but both Simon and I remember this episode ten years later and I would be surprised if Vic doesn't either. Another appearance at The Oval the next day followed - without such drama - when Flintoff made a name for himself with a dazzling unbeaten 135 and I was sent to Blackpool the following year.

One other great favour Bill did for me was to put me in touch with a Delhi-based statistician, Rajesh Kumar, who has not only become my best friend in India but who has made the more recent of my 31 trips to India even more enjoyable. He has not only arranged tickets for me but has got me onto one of India's premier cricket programmes, NDTV's Cricket Controversies, with Navjot Sidhu and hosted by the delightful Sonali Chander, as well as giving me palpitations by making me make my maiden speech - televised also - for M.S Dhoni at a Competition Success Review function to honour Dhoni and also acting as a statistician at the India and England ODI at Delhi's Feroz Shah Kotla ground in 2006. All three events took place within six days of each other. Through Rajesh, I have made many friends in the cricketing world including Sanjeev Sharma, the unlucky bowler who had Gooch dropped at Lord's 36 runs into his monumental 333. Sanjeev is a thoroughly decent and nice person.