Nigel Thirkell says it’s an honour to be inducted into the National Village Cup Hall of Fame.

Thirkell has been recognised for his efforts in helping Linton Park win national finals 21 years apart.

The first of those came in 1978 where he scored 51 not out and took 3-36 against Toft.

He was captain by the time Linton returned to Lord’s in 1999, hitting 60 and taking a wicket in the victory over Woodhouse Grange.

He was one of only two players to appear in both finals, along with Brian Piper.

Thirkell, 66, was back at Lord’s last Sunday for a presentation marking his induction.

“It was a lovely call to get, a bit of a surprise,” he said.

“I had to think about whether I wanted to accept it or not, which didn’t take very long.

“It’s an honour to be inducted into the Hall of Fame and it’s good for the club. It would be churlish not to accept it.”

The Hall of Fame was launched by the Cricketer Magazine three years ago, with Thirkell just the second inductee after a Covid-enforced break.

There can be few more deserving recipients, particularly given the time between Linton’s two National Village Cup victories.

“The first one was 1978, which is ancient history to a lot of people, but we do talk about it occasionally at the club,” said Thirkell, who is Linton’s club secretary these days.

“It was quite different for me because in 1978 I was 22-years-old and had no responsibilities, either in the team or anywhere else at that time, so I was playing cricket all the time and enjoying myself.

"You played cricket, and played hard, and had a lot of fun because we were quite a young side, all local and we knew each other very well and just had a good spirit in the team.

“Brian was playing, my brother Tim was playing, my cousin Jon Harris was captain, Paul Brattle lived next to the ground and we were lifelong friends, it was all very much like that.

“By 1999, I was captain and there’s more attention because you’re the point of contact for everybody, so it was quite busy.

“You remember quite a bit more about the 99 final because in relative terms it’s fairly recent.

“We never had a real moment in either final where we thought we’ve lost it now and it’s all going wrong.

“In the first one we chased 130, it wasn’t a big score to chase, and apart from losing a couple of wickets in the middle, we were OK and got there with two or three overs to spare.

“In 99 we got 190-odd and Woodhouse kept losing wickets all the way through.

“They were always behind the run rate and we never got to a point where we were panicking about how we were going to stop them scoring runs.”