Cricket: I’m a 91-year-old RAF veteran from Walsall - I play cricket for my local team every week

Mike Fisher from Walsall still plays cricket for his local team every week at the age of 91.

The RAF veteran plays cricket for two hours a week, every Friday, and says he can still play all over the field.

Mike averages around eight runs a game and has vowed to carry on playing for as long as he can. 

The grandfather-of-two rekindled his love of the game aged 87 after arranging a cricket match with friends for a dementia charity.

They enjoyed it so much that the group carried on playing and we now get together at Manor Farm Community Association in Rushall each week.

Mike says he’s the oldest batter by a long way playing against opponents 20 years younger than him.

He also plays as a striker for his local football team Old Corinthians three times a week and bags plenty of goals. 

He says exercise is his secret to keeping active at an old age and praised sports for preventing him from ‘falling to bits’.

Mike, from Bloxwich, Walsall, said: “I’m the oldest player there by a long way and I could be the oldest currently playing cricket, who knows.

“I’ve been playing for three or four years since taking it back up, it’s just something to do. It’s football and cricket for me, if I don’t do anything it’s not good, they keep me fit. There’s bowling, bat or field and I play them all, I love it all the same. I have never seriously played cricket, but I used to go around with a village team as a scorer and played if they were short.

“It started off again as a charity thing for dementia, we all decided we wanted to keep on playing after we finished the charity match. We play three, four or five overs each. We still keep playing, we get four or five runs. We take it in turns with the opposing team and switch positions. For every over we end up in a different position, we always swap. 

“We play once a week on Friday, we get the hall booked for two hours. For one hour we’re batting and another we’re bowling.

“I’ve scored a few runs now but we just go to enjoy ourselves. When I play football or cricket, I don't go to score or get runs, I go to enjoy it. It doesn’t matter how good you are, it’s just if you enjoy it, then you do it. No one is bothered. 

“I was 82 before I started playing walking football, someone told me to come and have a game. I went along and I started to score goals, I was called Ninja by my teammates. If you ask anyone about my name Mike, they say ‘who’s he?’ If you say Ninja, they know. If I'm not in one place, I'm in another. I’m never in one place long enough to be marked. I can’t be marked. 

“The secret is just to enjoy myself. If I wasn’t doing these sports I would be sitting down falling to pieces like most people my age, why would I want that?”