Talk:The hand that shook Aussie legend Don Bradman's hand

My father, Albert Alderman, played for Derbyshire from 1928-48. The Australian visit of 1948 caused great excitement and was also my father's testimonial year. I remember helping to sell programmes around the various grounds.

We lived in Aston-on-Trent but left the county for a new life in a strange part of England known as the South. There he took up a post as sports coach at the Royal Military Academy, Sandhurst, and we lived in Camberley.

My parents never forgot their roots and we spent many fume-filled hours in an old Rover car, making the pilgrimage back up to the Midlands.

My twin brothers, Rodney and David Alderman, played local cricket and my two sons, Timothy and Christopher, both love the game – the former gained a blue at Oxford in 1986 – which pleased my father immensely.

My cousin, Peter Holborn, recalls not only my father's cricketing skills but his ability as a young footballer for Derby County and, briefly, for Burnley in 1926/27.

Valerie Ann Dawson (nee Alderman).