27 year old gavin mackie ewing [ed: now that's a jock name!] comes to the mighty for the first time in season 2008, following hard on the heals of fellow southern african garry hampson. and, like the g', boothy comes in tandem with a better half. 2005 pro' wes thomas arrived with a girlfriend and now has a wife; 2006 and 2007 pro' g' came first with a fiancee and now has a wife; and gavin will arrive in april with fiancee chantelle! "big hi to chants!" what is it about 'locsters and their women-folk!
back to gav's cricketing c.v. a former test and o.d.i. international, he's a top-class all-rounder - an aggressive top-middle order batsman and off-spin bowler. his first class record speaks for itself, averaging 37.69, with a high score of 212, and taking 96 wickets at 32.25. and it was boothy's bowling that first drew the attention of the zimbabwean selectors, having finished in the top ten wicket-takers at the 1999 u19 world cup. then, only nine months after his first class debut, he was selected in the national squad to play the touring pakistanis in the 2002/03 season. this was followed by touring australia with zimbabwe.
his test high score's 71, with best bowling of 3-31 against new zealand.
and gavin's no stranger to the uk having played consecutive seasons for orrell in the liverpool & district league in 2000 and 2001.
back in zimbabwean domestic cric' he played for matabeleland but was, though, one of the original fifteen "rebels" who fell out with the zimbabwe cricket union in '04, only to settle his differences and return to the national side when england toured later that year. but further issues resulted in him resigning from both international and domestic cricket in zimbabwe a year later.
since his first visit, gavin's returned to the uk twice, and performed with great success. in 2006 for beccles town (averaging 62.86 with the bat and 9.53 with the ball), and in 2007 for devon ecb premier league side paignton (averaging 34.82 in addition to taking 27 wickets at 17.85). most recently, boothy's been playing in new zealand for inglewood in the taranaki premier competition averaging around 40 with the bat and 17.50 with his off-spin.
welcome to the 'loc, mr ewing!
