It’s back to lessons the day after making history

By becoming the youngest player to take part in a competitive county cricket match at the age of 15 years and 212 days, the teenager secured a place in the record books and took the plaudits from his fellow team-mates after Sunday’s YB40 game against Leicestershire.

The 6ft 2in pace bowler said the experience was a surreal moment in his fledgling professional cricketing career. He took time on Sunday evening to reflect on the achievement as he placed the match ball with which he had been presented by Yorkshire’s first-team coach, Jason Gillespie, in pride of place in his bedroom.

And even though he returned yesterday to Easingwold School in North Yorkshire where he is studying for his GCSEs, the spotlight still remained very much on Fisher, who undertook a series of media interviews in between lessons.

He told the Yorkshire Post: “It has been something of a different sort of day to what I am used to. It has just about sunk in that I have played for Yorkshire, but it hasn’t really sunk in that I played in front of all those people. It was am amazing experience, and one which has really inspired me. I would love to become a professional cricketer.”

Among the scores of good- luck messages was one text that stood out for Fisher, who took a wicket and scored 10 runs before being run out on the last ball of the innings in the defeat to Leicestershire. While he has never met his fellow Yorkshire team-mate Jonny Bairstow, the England star nonetheless took time to send Fisher a good luck message.

Fisher, who is also a talented footballer, said: “I have been overwhelmed by the number of messages I received, and it was really nice of Jonny to send me the text. He had asked for my mobile number when he heard I had been selected to play. He said congratulations and told me to enjoy it, as it would be a day that I would never forget.”

Fisher was handed the opportunity to make his debut with Yorkshire’s first team as the club’s teenage talent was given valuable experience as they are unlikely to progress to the semi-finals.

In doing so, he beat the previous record of Royston Gabe-Jones, who was 15 years and 274 days when he played for Glamorgan against Leicestershire in 1922.

The moment when Fisher crossed the boundary ropes was witnessed by school friends, teachers and members of Sheriff Hutton Bridge Cricket Club, where Fisher began his playing career, who all travelled to Scarborough for the game.

Fisher’s mother Sue, along with his elder brothers, Adam, 24, a RAF pilot, and Mark, 20, who is in his final year of a maths and accountancy degree at Loughborough University, were also in the crowd. But one person Fisher wished could have been there was his father, Phil, who died in July last year after losing his fight against bowel cancer.

Fisher, who lives with his mother in Huby in North Yorkshire, said: “My dad deserves as much credit for this as I do. He used to coach me when I was younger, and he was always inspiring me. When I took the wicket, I could hear him cheering along with the crowd. It was an emotional moment.”

Despite his high-profile appearance, Fisher was adamant his friends had welcomed him back in the fold at school yesterday. He is having to juggle his cricket with his studies, and is due to be at Headingley today to train with the second team ahead of two Twenty20 games this week.

He has also been with Yorkshire to Kent, Liverpool and Leicester in the last four weeks, although he has taken his school books 
away with him to study 
while sitting in the pavilion waiting to go into bat for the second team.

Fisher, who claims Andrew Flintoff is his cricketing hero after the Lancashire all-rounder’s performances in the legendary Ashes series of 2005, said: “Everyone has been brilliant, they said well done but then we just got on with the school day.

“The school have been so good in trying to help me cope with my studies while also giving me time off to go and play cricket. It is tough, but I wouldn’t change anything.”

Deputy headteacher Emma Robins added: “He is very self-effacing and humble, and is always smiling. He is incredibly popular, and someone who has an awful lot of potential both in sport and also in his academic studies. If anyone can manage to do what Matt is trying to do, then he can.”

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