Matt Maher: Rivals are honoured after putting in the hard yards

Instead, he is ready and raring to go as the Pears start their County Championship campaign at old rivals Warwickshire today.

“We’re way ahead of where we thought we were going to be,” Leach explains. “I was desperate to get back for the start of the season. If selected, hopefully, then I’m ready to go.”

This summer, his 12th as a professional cricketer, is a big one for 33-year-old Leach, who has been awarded a testimonial year as reward for his excellent and ongoing service for the Pears.

At Edgbaston, he will line up against another player in Oliver Hannon-Dalby who has been bestowed with the same increasingly rare honour after more than a decade of work for the Bears.

Their meeting seems the perfect moment to reflect on the careers of two men who, while they might never have troubled the England selectors, have and continue to make important contributions in their respective corners of the Midlands which will be remembered long after they call time on their playing days.

Speaking to the pair over the past week revealed some striking similarities in their ethos and a reminder success in sport, or life for that matter, is less about talent – though both have ample – than desire.

“I am a big believer if you work hard, you are consistent and are a decent person you get what is coming to you,” remarked Leach, just a few days after Hannon-Dalby had sat down at Edgbaston and claimed: “If you work hard and are a nice person, you have every chance in this game. It rewards hard work.”

A willingness to be persistent, while also courteous, is essentially how Hannon-Dalby ended up at the Bears.

Told he had no future at home club Yorkshire at the end of the 2012 season, the Halifax-raised seamer spent the winter ringing round every other county in the hope of getting a trial. Hampshire and Warwickshire were the two who replied, the latter in part because the Bears then bowling coach, Graeme Welch, remembered Hannon-Dalby from pre-season tours when Yorkshire used to share the same base.

“He told me he thought I was an alright lad because I always used to say ‘good morning’ when I walked past him in the hotel,” he explained. “It just goes to show, be polite!”

Welch had clearly also seen Hannon-Dalby’s potential as a bowler though, having been handed an initial six-month contract, he suffered a setback after breaking his arm while batting at Somerset. On the other hand, as he acknowledges now, his willingness to play through the pain and help the Bears to a draw may have furthered his cause.

“I guess it showed determination,” he admits. “The club ended up giving me a one-year extension essentially on the back of a decent pre-season and then batting with a broken arm. Luckily for me, 2014 went a lot better.”

It was that season Hannon-Dalby announced himself by helping the Bears win the T20 Blast, though it would be another five years before he became firmly established as a frontline bowler in the club’s County Championship attack. As the summers have ticked by, he’s kept getting better, taking more than 50 first-class wickets in each of the last two campaigns.

“I always thought I was a good red-ball bowler but I had to bide my time,” he explains. “When I arrived I was behind Chris Woakes, Boyd Rankin, Keith Barker, Chris Wright and Rikki Clarke. I had to start again as a back-up bowler, playing the odd game, working on my skills behind the scenes. By around 2018 all those great bowlers had left and I got my chance.”

Leach’s career is also one which perhaps benefited from having time to mature. Born in Stafford, he made his debut for Stone’s first XI at the age of just 14 and was soon on the Worcestershire academy pathway, having also impressed for Shrewsbury school. Yet his first-class debut actually came for Leeds/Bradford MCCU after he had also got a taste of Minor Counties cricket with Shropshire.

“The (university) system probably doesn’t exist now, but it gave me the time to develop and grow into a fully-fledged pro,” says Leach. “If I had signed a contract at 18 or 19, I would probably have been spat out of the game at 21. To have that finishing school experience was really important.”

The player Leach has become is not the one most expected when he made his Worcestershire debut in 2013, earmarked as a middle-order batter who could bowl if really needed. While still a more than handy run scorer, it is with the ball he has made by far the biggest impact.

“I’m still waiting for the penny to drop,” he claims, in typically modest fashion, when asked at what point he realised he might be quite a decent bowler. Some 450 first-class scalps and counting and six seasons as the county’s leading wicket-taker rather tell their own story.

“I always bowled growing up but never in this environment,” continues Leach. “That might have helped me a bit. Young bowlers these days are well looked after and restricted so much. The fact I slipped under the radar in my late teens and early 20s helped me develop in that period by bowling as much as I did in club cricket and minor counties.”

Leach spent five years captaining the Pears and though he stepped aside in 2021, remains a hugely important figure at the New Road.

“He’s the kind of guy you want on your team because he’ll run through brick walls for you,” ex-team-mate Charlie Morris observed.

Hannon-Dalby, who has completed his coaching badges, can regularly be found in his spare time passing on advice to youngsters at Edgbaston’s indoor school.

“It keeps me busy a couple of nights a week,” he explains. “I just love chatting cricket.”

What shines through the most, speaking to him and Leach, is their enduring love for the sport. Both give the impression of turning up for work each day with the same excitement they did their first.

“It’s just a great place to be,” remarks Leach of New Road. “That sense of belonging is not something you want to give up easily.”

As bowlers, they have no option but to enjoy the graft and embrace the pain. Between them, they have bowled more than 6,500 first-class overs alone. That’s some distance, if the data from Hannon-Dalby’s GPS tracker is to be believed.

“It ends up working out at about a kilometre an over,” he explains.

Leach is not quite so sure. “It might do for Olly, with his legs,” he says, referring to the Warwickshire man’s 6ft 8in frame. “Regardless, it is hard work. I would be lying if I said it didn’t hurt.

“Getting up in the morning is getting harder and harder but to have the sense of satisfaction and achievement for the work you have put in is why you do it.”

Hannon-Dalby agrees, explaining: “After a good day’s work, when your socks are full of blood, you can sit back and know you put a shift in.

“I always see bowling as a metaphor for life. If things aren’t going well and you have bowled 10 overs for 60 runs, keep persevering and things can quickly change.”

You can guarantee both will stay true to that value. While their respective testimonial years offer the chance to celebrate and reflect on achievements to this point, while also raising money for good causes, these are careers still very much alive, for which the highest peaks may be yet to come.

“That question of what I want to be when I grow up, I have still not answered,” smiles Hannon-Dalby, who this year will aim to pass the total of 500 career wickets. “I am still making it up as I go along, still figuring it out.

“I am loving my cricket at the moment. I still want to improve. I still get really excited coming to the ground every day. As long as they’ll have me, I’ll keep turning up.”

n For more information on Joe Leach’s testimonial year, visit joeleachtestimonial.co.uk and for more on Oliver Hannon-Dalby’s benefit year, visit ohd2024.co.uk