Meet cricketer who played for Shepparton and namesake side in England

The 54-year-old grew up in a sporting family in the Goulburn Valley before eventually settling in Brisbane, where he still turns out for the University of Queensland at Over-40s level to this day.

Speaking to the News from Queensland, he fondly recalled his upbringing in Shepparton before casting his mind back to heady days on the banks of the River Thames representing the cricket team in his hometown’s namesake village in Surrey, England.

Situated in the Spelthorne District, about 24km south-west of central London, Shepperton has been home to residents as varied as poet Percy Shelley and pop legend Tom Jones in the past.

However, it is quite possible that Gray holds the unique honour of being the only person to have lived in these two eponymous towns, situated on separate continents.

He guesses that he first picked up the bat and donned his pads as a schoolboy at Bourchier St Primary, before joining Shepparton Cricket Club to compete at under-14s level, making his debut for the A-grade at the age of 16.

Having also played football for Shepparton United, four knee reconstructions by the time he was 22 meant that he turned all of his attention to cricket.

Inspired by Shepparton Cricket Club’s fabled tour of the British Isles back in 1984, Gray informed then-league administrator Bill Williams of his interest in heading over to Shepperton, England in 1993, with his wish becoming a reality during the year that followed.

“I reached out to Bill about whether he had any contacts in England to see if I could go and play cricket over there,” Gray remembered.

“This was the days before the internet, and he gave me the contact details of who he thought was the president of the Shepperton Cricket Club in the UK.

“I wrote a letter to them and got a formal response back addressed to ‘Andrew Gray Esquire’ which invited me to come and play for them if I was to go over there.”

After heading over to England in 1994, he lived in Shepperton, with the club arranging accommodation for him, and he later found a job working as an administrator.

Settling into life over in Blighty, he even bought himself a Mini Cooper for 200 pounds and even ticked off a bucket-list item for any sports fan by visiting the historic Lord’s Cricket Ground.

Eventually he moved in with one of Shepperton Cricket Club’s other players, a policeman from Newcastle-upon-Tyne, England, who remains a friend to this day.

“I wasn’t aware of anyone else having gone over to play for them (at that stage),” he said.

“It was a fun time for us as guys in our 20s, and I think I played over 40 games around the bottom half of England.

“It used to cost me a day of pay at work to play, but you got to play on some really nice grounds every Saturday and Sunday, as well as every second week on a Wednesday - it was a good time playing a lot of cricket.

“The standard was probably on par with what I was used to in Shepparton, with one or two players better than back home, and the bottom three or four were probably not as good.”

He remembered former England internationals Alec Stewart and Mark Butcher dropping down to play at clubs where they first made their names in the days before T20 cricket to get match practice.

“Surrey players would drop down to the club where they started out so you never knew who you would play against - it was a bit of a lottery,” Gray said.

Gray also coached the Shepperton Cricket Club’s women’s team, which proved to be another enjoyable experience.

“That was before women’s cricket had really taken off, but Shepperton over in the UK was one of the leaders in women’s cricket,” he said.

“I must have been the only coach who never saw their team play, though, as I did all their training through the week, but they’d be playing at the same time as me on a weekend.”