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Jim Foat – legend among non-legends
Jim Foat was a batsman for Gloucestershire in the Seventies. You probably haven’t heard of him; he wasn’t a great batsman.
Jim Foat played 91 first-class matches and 129 one-day matches. First class average: 18.60. One-day average: 15.19. He didn’t take a wicket.
Over 251 innings in first-class matches and one-dayers, he went past 50 just 14 times. That is supremely shite. So supremely shite in fact that he has a following. He’s not entirely unlike this website in that regard, so we instantly warmed to him.
So what does the story of Jim Foat teach us?
- It’s important to have faith in your own abilities, even when others don’t.
- If you’ve lost faith in your abilities, it’s important to just carry on anyway.
- Having carried on for a period of time and had it proven beyond all doubt that you’re not up to the job, don’t give up. The important thing is that you’re probably getting on someone’s nerves and that’s what really matters.
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Discussion Area - Make an appeal
Seeing the name reminded me of another annoying thing from the Seventies – the song “Float On” by “The Floaters”.
And once that thought pops into your head, along with the excuse for a tune that disc contained, you cannot get said annoying “tune” out of your head.
Not even by playing an old Au Pairs album to drive the irritating idee fix away.
“Jim Foats like a butterfly, stings like a bee” used to be on a banner alongside the M5 – near Gloucester.
That now makes sense.
How did he possibly manage to continue being selected for so long?
Amy, from reading the article it looks like he was a superb fielder. Gus Logie and Jonty Rhodes made a good career out of this for their country – admittedly with twice the average.
Also it seems he scored 5 centuries, which judging by his scoring rate would have taken immense concentration.
He seems like a decent sort of chap, judging by his modest comments. He is also a much better cricketer than me, having scored five centuries in first class cricket.
That last sentence tends to remain true about people even if you delete the final five words.
I’m going to print that last bit out and stick it on my wall.
I love this bit: “His interests are unbelievably prosaic – driving and television.” What a guy.
I played cricket and football with Foat at Prep School. At that level he was supreme, but we still took the occasional battering at football. I remember once losing very heavily at Christopher Whitehead School in Worcester.
He went on to Millfield to hone his skills!
Foat was a bit of a lad at school – one of the more unruly ones, a great character. I think his Dad owned a pub in Salford Priors near Evesham.