By Guy Williams.
As Mick Kohler-Cadmore, 58, Yorkshire’s dressing room attendant, gave a conducted tour of the team’s facilities at Headingley before the Specsavers County Championship match against Hampshire, it quickly became clear he’s much more than the father of Tom, Yorkshire’s middle order batsman.
Now in his second season at the county, Kohler-Cadmore senior worked previously for 30 years as a prison officer at jails in Swansea, London, Rochester and Hull before switching to professional sport.
As Tom made progress with Worcestershire, Mick, a decent footballer, rugby player and cricketer himself at clubs in South Wales, Kent and East Yorkshire, was asked to take over as the dressing room attendant at New Road, but when his son controversially moved to Yorkshire during the 2017 season, he left too, and soon afterwards was appointed to the same job at Headingley.
“If I said I’d died and gone to heaven, I wouldn’t be exaggerating. Just to be around professional sportsmen in a work capacity is a dream come true.
“I do anything they want me to. I’ve painted the dressing room, I assist with the kit and allocate it, make sure the rooms are clean, I launder the towels and help with the catering.
“I also referee the pre-match football games and help the coaches whether it’s standing behind the slips collecting balls or doing throw-downs.
“The atmosphere in the dressing room is good and when I go on social media and read some of the comments, I just don’t know where they get these stories from.
“Yes, everyone is down when Yorkshire are defeated but within a day or two, everyone is bouncing again. Sometimes when you are dealing with irate cricketers, it can be the same as dealing with angry prisoners. You need to have a calm head and be a father figure. The prison service gave me the skills to handle people in difficult circumstances.
“The worst part is being around when Tom first goes out to bat. I’m really nervous during the initial four or five overs, but if he gets in and scores a few, I’m totally relaxed, thinking he’s going to go big. But if then gets out, I’m shocked because Tom’s been playing so well.”
Before transferring to the calmer waters of first class cricket, Mick experienced several dangerous incidents as a prison officer.
“At Rochester, I remember one prisoner who was ranting and raving on the wing. He picked up a pool cue in my office and then smashed all the new notice boards. Some of the staff panicked, but I grabbed a broom and ended up fencing on the wing with the prisoner. Eventually, I pinned him against a wall and got him down on the floor.
“Between 2004 and 2012, I worked at Hull and became manager of the sex offenders’ programme. We had more than 200 prisoners, some of whom had committed horrendous crimes, whether flashing in a park, raping an infant or downloading child porn from the internet.
“ The thing about sex offenders and most were professional people-clergy,doctors,solicitors and police officers-is that you wouldn’t notice walking down a street who’s a sex offender and who isn’t.”
On a lighter note, Mick’s shift patters in jails gave him the opportunity to work in an important role in sport, handling crowds far bigger than Headingley’s or at Lord’s.
“I was chief steward at the old Wembley stadium from 1999 and 2000.On match days, I was in charge of 500 staff. I was also on duty at Euro 96 where the atmosphere was unbelievable when England beat Spain in the quarter-finals.
“I loved Wembley and you won’t believe this, but in 2001 I was asked to take part in the comedy film..Mike Bassett-England manager, starring Ricky Tomlinson. Part of it was filmed at Wembley and I appear briefly in the opening shot.”
Now much more than a walk-on part, Mick is preparing for a busy summer at Headingley which is staging four World Cup matches and an Ashes Test.
