Bobby Barter - Behind the Green Door.

Forgive me a short interlude from paddling to plug a book written by of one of my old cricket mates, Bobby Barter's 'Behind the Green Door'.
In my days playing cricket for Randwick, as if getting into first grade wasn't incentive enough, the cream on the cake was having Bobby as the manager/dressing room attendant/advisor on life/tipster and all round champion bloke. When I retired & took up paddling he wrote a poem about me in the Hawkesbury Classic, carefully weaving in what were then my world-class abilities in what the French call 'la troisième demi', the name of my first boat (Che Guevara) & the fact that I had a Cockatiel called Frank Bunce. I told him then & there his talents would take him to the top of the bestsellers list!
When Bob was in charge, you'd walk into the sheds at the start of the day and a whole table would be set up with fruit, energy drinks, tape for those niggling injuries, a water bottle with your name on it and any number of other little touches to make the day go easier. Even though it was only ever semi professional at that level, you felt like you were at Lords, or... the SCG, rather than Coogee Oval.... 

When Simon Katich arrived at Randwick Petersham (as the club became after merging with nearby Petersham), the legend of Bob's dressing room excellence had grown to epic proportions, and in 2004 he was offered the job of 'roomie' at the hallowed dressing room at the SCG. 

Bob has spent the last 6 years watching some of the great moments in cricket from the inner circle, and has written a book about his experiences. It's not your normal stats loaded, sport centric cricket book, but rather a fly on the wall account by a guy who is clearly held in the highest esteem by the players we all know as household names. It's a great read even for those not interested in sport in general, and will be available from Bob's website www.scggreendoor.com shortly.