McGENITY PREPARES CURRY AND CONVIVIALITY AT ST MARY’S

Date: 5th June 2014

A Paul Edwards copyright exclusive for L&DCC Official Website.

BHStMs, the land of Billy

The warmth of the welcome at Birkenhead St Mary’s on a Saturday evening has never depended on the result of the match just completed. To enter the spiritual home of Billy McGenity is to be introduced to a land of humour, hospitality and fearsomely warm curries.

But the greetings will be particularly heartfelt on Friday evening, when Wallasey arrive for their second round match in the Liverpool Echo Knockout Trophy.

The explanation for this lies not only in the insouciant charm of the debonair Chris Bourne and his men from the Wirral, but also in the fact that the game will mark the return to the club of Shakil Nawaz, who will play a final game on the ground where he steered Birkenhead St Mary’s to very many victories.

In ten seasons at the club, Shakil, “Shak” to everyone he played with, scored over 5000 runs and took 557 wickets, thus enabling his side to enjoy the most successful period in its 136-year history. Shakil’s all-round talents enabled McGenity to pick up every trophy the Merseyside Competition had on offer, and Friday’s match will no doubt evoke memories of that era.

Yet the evening will have a deeply poignant quality, too. When McGenity’s son, Steve, died last year, Shakil wrote from his Rawalpindi home expressing a desire to play a final game at the Park in memory of the cricketer with whom he had shared so much sporting achievement. The 20-over game will see that wish fulfilled. It should be a fine occasion and early departures seem unlikely.

Recently appointed a Grand Master of the Sauvignon Blanc, McGenity will also be welcoming local restauranteur Mizanul Haque to the club tomorrow. Like Shakil, Mizanul is a deeply popular figure at Birkenhead St Mary’s and the pair’s presence on the ground in the early years of this century helped to promote racial and religious tolerance in the area at a difficult time.

So, for one evening at least, the fact that McGenity’s beloved club’s first team has won only one league game in six this season will be forgotten, although, to be frank, results have never been the only criterion of success at St Mary’s.

Instead, there will be hot curries, warm memories and increasingly tall tales. And spurred by a spiced, subcontinental cuisine, Birkenhead St Mary’s players may be well placed to put the wind up Hightown when the two sides meet in their Second Division match on Saturday.