By Mark Bristow

Should Kent’s Zak Crawley and Steve Smith come to face each other in the Ashes Down Under this winter, Leeds and Broomfield bowler Tom Parsons will be taking a personal interest as he watches the series unfold from his sofa.

Parsons, 34, captained Crawley and played alongside Smith during his 14 years spent with Sevenoaks Vine, the Kent League Premier Division club, during which time he guided them to league title success in 2014.

He has taken 10 wickets in his opening three games for Leeds, including five away to Cowdrey, and is excited by the youthful ambition of his new club, now being coached by his father Rick.

Leeds, together with local rivals Kings Hill, are among the favourites for promotion (they top Division 3 and beat Whitstable by 131 runs at the weekend) but Parsons admits: “I am starting to feel a bit old. I think there is only myself and one other player over the age of 30, but for my dad it’s really exciting for him to be back coaching promising youngsters.

“There’s two or three who really could be playing Premier League cricket, particularly George Davis, our opening bat (scoring 162 off 118 balls against Whitstable) and Max Aitken, our captain. Ed Scrivens is hugely promising as are Martin McCague’s two lads Monte and Clarry.”

Parsons, who had spells on the county staff at Kent, Hampshire and Middlesex, having made his first class debut as a Loughborough student, was twice Kent League Premier Division leading wicket taker and led the Vine to the title for the first time since 1997.

In that same year, Crawley made his Vine debut as a 15-year-old and Parsons adds: “We still have a bit of a laugh over his first game when I see him. It was away at Hartley Country Club which was always a difficult place to play.

“Zak defended the first ball back and strolled out of his crease to tap down the wicket. Suddenly one of their fielders threw the ball into the wicketkeeper’s hands who took off the bails and he was given out for a duck. No one could quite believe it, least of all Zak.

“He stomped off the field with his shoulders hunched over but to be honest he walks off like that whether he gets a duck or 150.

“Dad did a lot of coaching with him and you could see that he would be a top player. I played against James Vince and Sam Northeast when they were 15 or 16 and you can always tell when a player has got that edge of class.

“Zak was a lovely guy with a brilliant attitude and even after moving onto the county and then Test circuit he would always come back and make presentations to the junior teams at the end of the season.”

Despite a handful of first-class appearances, Parsons struggled to break into the county first teams and adds: “The step up was really hard especially in my two years at Hampshire who had a really talented side, but you can’t beat playing cricket for a living. I had my moments in the 2nd XIs and I suppose my best wickets were Jos Buttler and Marcus Trescothick as well as Adam Voges and Vikram Solanki and a young Faf du Plessis when he was a youngster in the Nottinghamshire 2nd XI. I think the one I most enjoyed was Justin Langer when I spent a winter playing grade cricket in Australia.”

At Leeds, who have won all three opening fixtures convincingly, Parsons has reprised his new-ball partnership with Neil Dibben with whom he opened the bowling in the Maidstone Grammar School sides at the start of the millennium.

“It’s nice to just rock up and play cricket and not have to think about anything else,” Parsons adds. “Although we won the league in the only year that I captained the Vine, I can’t say that I enjoyed it. I was living in West London at the time for work reasons and couldn’t always get to practice and I think my personal performance sometimes suffered that year.

“There’s so much to think about when you captain a side in the Kent League ‘prem’ before you even think about bowling a ball.

“My time there just came to a natural conclusion and after last year’s Covid-hit season, it’s good to have a fresh start and to be back with my dad on a Saturday.

“The added bonus is that he’s useful for babysitting duties. When I’m playing I can just hand our daughter Willow, who’s nearly two, to him on the boundary and go out and play.”

Parsons, who now lives in Tonbridge, and his wife Emily are expecting their second child within the next two weeks and asked if he will still be permitted to play for Leeds after the birth, Parsons concluded: “Let’s just say, that is yet to be confirmed!”