Et Al Pics: I'll bring a change of clothes next time

Philip Brown goes to extraordinary lengths to capture an unusual annual cricket match

Rachael Potter batting in the annual Brambles Bank cricket match.

So you think you know about the life of a cricket photographer, do you? You imagine that I drive to a cricket ground, get all my equipment out of the car and place it on my trolley, enter the ground and set up for a day of photography. Well done you, that’s correct, … but not quite all of the time.

Let’s take today for example. I set my alarm for exactly 3.02 this morning; promptly got out of bed, got dressed and climbed into the Qashqui. Just before 5am I arrived on the south coast of England at a lovely village called Hamble. At 6am I was on a boat with a TV crew and at three minutes past seven, well, I, err …. I jumped into the sea.

Well, I did. No one forced me to you understand. I did it of my own free will. Why? Great question. Well, the 11th of September was a special day in that it was the day of the famous Bramble Bank cricket match. Boats converged near a sand bar that only appears during a low spring tide. I wanted to try to get a really good picture of the event.