ERROL PARKER | Editor-at-large | Contact

A local park cricketer has told friends today that he took a great catch in gully off some good quick bowling. That he was walking in with the bowler and the ball slipped off the meat of the bat and hurtled straight at his head.

His hands were pointing down, they needed to be pointing up, he tells our reporter this morning.

With a crisp slap that sounded like someone covered a nice rump steak in snail shells then hit it with a meat tenderiser, he caught it.

Only today, Greg Corrigan’s hand doesn’t feel any better than it did on Saturday night.

The 38-year-old’s thumb almost immediately puffed up and turned blue. He told himself then that it just hit him on the meat of the palm. But he knew deep down it didn’t. It hit him on the point of the thumb and probably bent it forwards or back at some exotic angle.

Greg told our reporter that it’s not broken, despite it obviously being broken.

“I’ve broken this thumb before and it feels completely different,” he said.

“The pain isn’t radiating throughout my whole hand. Look, I can still pick things up.”

Greg winced as he tried to pick up a medium-sized coffee cup. It was half-full but made from a quality, thick china.

“No, I think it’s just taking a while to settle down because I’m getting old,” he told himself and our reporter simultaneously.

“Why don’t I go and see a doctor? Because I haven’t got the time or money to have a broken hand. So it’s not broken, it’s just bruised. It’s taking a while to heal because I’m getting old.”

Our reporter sat in silence with Mr Corrigan for ten minutes before he admitted that he was going to see a doctor this afternoon.

More to come.



