Cricket lovers will be aware that the next president of the MCC is John Barclay the ex captain of Sussex but I doubt whether many will know that 25 years ago Barclay used to work for International Factors at a time when they were the pre eminent factoring company in the country. It was later that they started what felt like the annual change of ownership and direction that left them the virtually unknown factoring company that they are today.

Barclay wasn’t alone as a factoring cricketer as at about the same time yours truly used to work alongside the late Colin Ingleby-Mackenzie who was captain of Hampshire in the sixties and also president of the MCC in his time – as well as Nick Pocock who was the current captain of Hampshire at the time.