Kris Halstead
24/04/2007Kris Halstead: Competitiveness, Competence and Captaincy
By Russell Eggar
"After Wheely left, everyone just kind of accepted that I was going to be the next captain". Kris Halstead is a modest man but accepts that it was his ability and competitiveness that saw him pick up the 1st team captaincy after his good friend Simon Wheelwright left the club at the end of the 2006 season.
Kris has been a valued member of the Mytholmroyd 1st team for four years and he greets me at Mytholmroyd Community Centre where the 1st team have been training in the nets, and after wrapping up the session and attending to the admin matters that come with his new role at the club, he tells me that he will meet me in the Dusty Miller pub in the village for a quick chat and a well earned pint.
Kris is obviously a keen sportsman and mentions that he plays football on a regular basis but cricket is a passion of his. He started his cricketing career at the age of 9 playing at Walsden Cricket Club up until the age of about 17 when he fell foul of the major distraction for any teenage boy...girls.
After a few years out of the game, he picked up his career again at Walsden and before long he was persuaded by then captain and good friend Simon Wheelwright to join up with Royd and has never looked back, becoming one of the club's most consistent, valued and elegant batsmen.
A prison officer by trade, working at Forest Bank in Manchester, his life is full of interesting and occasionally stressful times. He uses sport to relax and enjoys returning to his home in Todmorden and playing cricket down in the serene surroundings of Mytholmroyd throughout the summer.
Kris is quick to praise the club for the way it accepted him and has made him feel appreciated. "It's like I've always been there really". Kris also mentions that the people at Mytholmroyd have made his whole family feel like part of the club. "My partner, my mum and dad and family have all been made welcome."
On reflection, Kris thinks that the club has come along way in the last few years. His highest and lowest moments came in the same season when in 2005 the team won the Parish Cup but also failed to clinch the league title in a matter of weeks. He is determined to rectify the club's bad luck in the league and identifies the recapturing of the title as his main priority as the new team captain. "I want to win everything, every game I play in, I want to win and hopefully we can do it this season."
As a fond and highly respected member of Mytholmroyd Cricket Club he has taken on the role of 1st XI captain with a lot of determination and vigour, even before the new season has started. He has clear goals and aims to achieve them in the very near future. However, he knows that being the skipper is not an easy job: "It's hard work at times because we have a few characters in the team and they do need a bit of looking after...everybody seems to think that I'll be able to handle it."
He understands that there are pressures that come with the captaincy but hopes that his commitment and experience of the game will be enough to put the first team back where they belong: at the top of the league.