For Matt

I remember the first time I watched Matthew Hobden bowl, it wasn’t great to be honest – 0-80 or so from 15 if I remember rightly – but I was enthralled nonetheless.

Partly because of his entirely unique run-up that I couldn’t stop staring at in confused awe, and partly because he had been so lovely when I first met him the evening before.

If anything it was just a normal close of play presser on the balcony of the Emirates ICG pavillion, but it was my first – or at least the first I had got involved in.

Earlier in the day Matt and Ollie Robinson had put Durham’s bowlers to the sword and turned the opening day of this late April game completely on its head. On a day when some truly wonderful first class batters had been made to look poor, no one had expected a number 9 and a number 11 to put on 164 against Chris Rushworth and Graham Onions.

Of course the attention was on Ollie, those were the stories I wrote and everyone else at the ground did too, but Matt turned up for the press as well with the biggest smile on his face.

I learnt over the next three days that the smile was never one to go away, even with a duck in the next dig and another average showing with the ball.

But on that first day he played shots that only a number 11 could play with the carefree joy of an under-14 who’s been told to play his shots on a third team senior debut.

One six, off Paul Collingwood if my memory serves, had almost the entire ground – including the Durham captain – smiling along with him, although more likely in disbelief than in Matt’s pure joy.

That evening the smile was still there, in spite of the tap he received in only two overs from the Durham openers, when he walked out onto the astroturf-clad balcony to talk with myself and BBC Sussex’ Adrian Harms.

For the entire 5-10 minutes we were out there he barely said anything that wasn’t to praise his batting partner and roommate, he took any praise with a smile and went straight back to talking about the partnership and about Ollie.

Sure he could have just been being professional and giving the debutant his moment in the sun, but this was Matt’s moment too and he seemed to be reveling in it in his own modest and cheerful way.

I wanted to thank him for making the scariest moment of my young career so easy and to congratulate him once more but I failed to grab him at the end of the game, I always thought I’d get the chance to thank him this year… and to show him the impression of his run-up I’d been working on, I didn’t know whether he’d like that bit but I thought I’d show him anyway.

Now that impression has almost become my ode to him. It’s certainly not the best ode in history, in fact it’s probably the worst, but I like to think it would have drawn another flash of that infectious smile.

So thank you Matt, for everything you would never have realised you gave me, thank you with all my heart.

Rest in peace.