Alex aims to Wade in with wickets

Alex Wade is starting his professional journey at an opportune time.

Pace is a buzz word in English Cricket at present, and Yorkshire’s new professional has plenty of it.

A fast bowler with England Under 19s experience under his belt, Wade, aged 17, is one of three Academy stars to have graduated onto the senior staff at Headingley across the course of the last four months, alongside Noah Kelly and Jawad Akhtar.

Late last month, Wade signed a two-year rookie contract with his home county. But it wasn’t always completely obvious which sporting path this talented teenager would follow, even if his love for bat and ball trumped everything else.

“I played a lot of hockey,” he explained. “I only really stopped playing last year.

“I got to quite a high standard. I played Northern England and regional age-group level and was on the England Pathway. But I stopped due to cricket.

Picture by Allan McKenzie/SWpix.com. Fast bowler Alex Wade is a new kid on the block in Yorkshire’s senior squad.

“I played a lot of other sports – a lot of rugby, tennis, golf and swimming – but cricket was the one we focused most on.”

When Wade says, ‘We’, he means family. He comes from a cricket mad family whose home club is Olicanian CC in Ilkley. They play their cricket in the Aire Wharfe League.

“I used to go and watch my brother (Lawrence) play at Olicanian, and my dad (David) played a bit as well,” he continued.

“I started getting into it at seven or eight, going down to nets all the time with my mum (Sandra), dad and brother.”

Wade moved to Bradford League club Bradford and Bingley ahead of the most recent summer, though only played for them a couple of times due to other commitments.

Those were with Yorkshire at Academy and second-team level as well as the England Under 19s, for whom he played three times last month against Ireland and Scotland, taking six wickets.

Picture by YCCC. Alex Wade was part of the Yorkshire Academy team who won the U18s County Cup title at Kibworth at the start of September. Wade is middle row, fourth from right.

“That was an amazing week,” he reflected.

He spoke with similar excitement about turning professional with Yorkshire.

“I’m over the moon to be honest, really excited,” he said, having been told the good news by James Martin, Yorkshire’s head of the performance pathway.

“It was quite a surprise because I would maybe have expected it a year later.

“But to get the news was a fantastic feeling.

“It’s been an incredible season with so many great memories.

Picture by Allan McKenzie/SWpix.com. James Martin was the one to tell Wade that he was being offered his first professional contract.

“Playing with and against some top players has been amazing. I hadn’t played a second-team game before this season, but I’ve played so much this year. I played alongside Joe Root, Dawid Malan, Shan Masood. That was unbelievable.

“I managed to have a little chat with Joe. He played a T20 game at Sheffield Collegiate, I think it was. And Shan Masood would always be giving tips on warm-ups and how to make sure you get focused – those kind of things.”

Wade’s summer included second-team and Under 18s cricket for Yorkshire as well as representative appearances for England’s Under 19s and at the ECB’s Super4s competition at Loughborough – a best versus the best event for the country’s Under 18s players.

Highlights included a best of 4-25 from three overs in a second-team T20 victory over Derbyshire at Duffield in late June as well as helping the Academy win the Under 18s County One-Day Cup title at the start of September.

“We’ve had quite a few finals over the last couple of seasons in the age-groups, but unfortunately we’ve been on the wrong side of them,” he said of the latter. “So it was a really good feeling to get on the right side of it this year.

“Playing with all the people I’ve played with since I was very young and have success alongside them was an amazing feeling.

Picture by Ryan Hiscott/Getty Images. Alex Wade’s bowling style has been compared to that of England’s Saqib Mahmood.

“When I’m in that team and you look around, you think, ‘Gosh, there’s so much talent here. We can do some amazing things’.

“It’s definitely a very exciting group.”

So, to that pace. Speak to a number of coaches at Headingley, and there’s a great deal of excitement when it comes to Wade.

He is a right-armer with a smooth action who has clocked close to 90mph already. Second-team coach Tom Smith says one of his first thoughts when he saw Wade bowl was: “He reminded me of Saqib Mahmood at Lancashire.”

“I’ve had that quite a bit,” smiles Wade when discussing his style.

“I would say that from a very young age, people have told me that I’ve had that extra something in pace wise. Even so, I’m always trying to work on getting faster.

Picture by YCCC. Alongside Wade, Jawad Akhtar is another of Yorkshire’s new rookie professionals.

“For me, that extra pace is key to my bowling, and it’s what I love to do.”

Asked which bowlers he looks up to, he said: “I definitely look at the ones with raw pace, Jofra Archer, Shaun Tait, the West Indian quicks. I love watching those and take a couple of things from them. Michael Holding’s another one I’ve watched.”

Wade is currently in Year 13 at school – in the early stages of his final year of A-Levels.

“It’s the big year,” he said. “I’m doing Chemistry, Maths and Economics, so it’s quite full on. I’m looking to go to University as well.”

For the next eight months, his education and cricket will be managed carefully. Then he can throw himself head first into cricket for the summer.

“I would love to continue playing a lot of second-team games,” he added. “And if I can play a few in the first team as well, that would be a great feeling. Hopefully there might be a few England Under 19s opportunities as well.”