Cockbain: My day in the Lord's lmelight.

Byline: PAUL EDWARDS 

TO watch Andrew Flintoff steam in from the Pavilion End at Lord's a week last Monday was thrilling. To be at the great old ground that morning was to experience the crackle of anticipation which only top level sport can provide.

But what must it have been like to be in the England dressing room when Australia were beaten at the home of cricket for the first time in 75 years ? Merseyside sports fans can find out the answer very easily. They can ask Ian Cockbain.

The Firwood Bootle opener is currently on the MCC groundstaff and he was England's 12th man for the five days of the Lord's Test. He fetched, he carried, he took out the drinks and, for about 20 overs on the Sunday afternoon, he donned an England kit and fielded as substitute for Kevin Pietersen while Michael Clarke and Brad Haddin were making their vain but glorious attempt to win the game for Australia.

"There's mini me !" gushed David Lloyd on Sky, in a reference to the nickname Cockbain derived from his father, also Ian and also a Bootle and Lancashire cricketer, who had been England 12th man against India 30 years ago and who retired from the game last September. "Bumble" and "Coey" had been colleagues at Old Trafford.

"I was pretty nervous to begin with," recalled Cockbain. "I started out by fielding on the boundary but then I got called in to short cover, mid-on and and mid-off. It was very intense but I gradually became more switched on to the atmosphere.

"But I wanted the ball to come to me. "I wanted to be a part of it all."

And if a catch had come Cockbain's way, it could be argued that his cricketing apprenticeship had prepared him pretty well for it.

As someone who has been on the thick end of one of his father's legendary rollickings, he is no stranger to the need to perform well under pressure.

But he said: "Fred Flintoff was a huge help," he said. "He settled me down and he gave me a signed cap at the end of it all. I was made to feel really welcome.

"When I was fielding, I was concentrating very hard, but at other times of course I thought about Bootle. I'd never not be thinking about Wadham Road. It's my home club."

CAPTION(S):

Ian Cockbain with 'mini me' son Ian, who has tasted Ashes combat