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‘I have always been obsessed with fire. I just love it. It’s a bit psychotic, a bit caveman. Feeling its warmth, staring at the flames, it’s like you’re in a trance, hypnotic.’
So says Matthew Hoggard, the least incendiary of the fab four fast bowlers integral to England’s fabled Ashes series of 2005. The water carrier of the team who wrested the urn from Australian hands following two decades of despair.
As conventional as they come on the field, he might have been: old-fashioned swing and a robust physique contributing to 248 wickets and ninth place in England’s all-time Test wicket-takers’ list, and stoic thou-shalt-not-pass batting best remembered for grinding out a decisive Trent Bridge win in that sensational summer 15 years ago.
Matthew Hoggard was the least incendiary of the fast bowlers integral to England’s 2005 win
But off it, he has always pushed the boundaries. In his youth, he wanted to be a vet. Since hanging his boots up in 2013, however, he’s dabbled in insurance, foreign currency ‘and a few other things that were about putting money in the bank’. None of them were him.
‘I didn’t enjoy them. Then, somebody told me that when it came to work, I needed to find something that I was passionate about. I flippantly said, “Eating and drinking”.
‘From there, the idea was born that I could teach people how to make the most out of their grills and run a barbecue school – and that’s exactly what we’ve done,’ he says.
The original plan for Hoggy’s Grill, which the Yorkshireman runs with his wife Sarah, was to sell online the products they promote, only for the launch of the business to coincide with the first lockdown of this Covid-hit year.
With everyone spending money on stay-at-home items at the start of the summer, they simply could not acquire stock, leaving them to shift focus to the alternative four-hour cooking lessons the 43-year-old has run in picturesque Rutland Water whenever coronavirus restrictions have eased.
Restarting classes in the run-up to the festive season was not risked, although gift certificates for when they do have proved popular.
Hoggard talks of charcoal distribution, grease fires, creating cold spots and direct and indirect cooking as authoritatively as he once might of off-cutters, out-swingers and stock balls. So, where did he acquire such expertise?
‘When I was a teenager, mum used to feed us at half past five – the Neighbours theme tune would come on during every evening meal. But by seven o’clock, I was hungry again,’ he recalls.
The ex-England seamer has now opened a barbecue school in Rutland called ‘Hoggy’s Grill’
‘Mum used to say, “I’ve fed you once. I’m not feeding you again”, but as long as I left the empty packets and cans on the side – so she knew what she had to replace – I was allowed to cook what I wanted and that meant experimenting with flavours.
‘Then, aged 18 I was lucky enough to go to South Africa to play club cricket for the first time and after matches there would be a braai. I’ve always loved being around a fire, hanging out with team-mates, having a great time, eating some lovely food.’
As England’s 602nd Test cricketer – the number appears on the Hoggy’s Grill logo – his personal high also came in South Africa, in early 2005, when at Johannesburg’s iconic Wanderers he bowled the team to an extraordinary final-day victory by completing a 12-wicket match haul, the country’s best since Ian Botham 25 years previously.
There were other great days too, like the hat-trick in the historic, series-deciding match in Barbados, plus seven-wicket bags against India and New Zealand.
Hoggard shows off his BBQ skills, after he launched his new business during the first lockdown
There were low points, though, the lowest of which came against the Kiwis in 2008 when he turned to Michael Vaughan at the start of his run-up in what would be his final Test and said: ‘I’m doing a Tres here, I’m going cuckoo.’
Not the choice of words he would use in hindsight, given the bravery of Marcus Trescothick in publicly tackling the issue of mental health later that year, but they told of the Hoggard family’s own struggles in coping with Sarah’s post-natal depression.
‘I was having problems with Sarah and Ernie, who had just come over, and the biggest mistake I made when I had those problems is that I didn’t go home. Sarah was begging me, and I didn’t go. I told her, “It looks like I’m running away”.
‘I was then on the field for another two to three years when I was physically there but mentally I was nowhere. Getting sacked by Yorkshire, as well. Those were dark times. I did feel quite alone.’
So how would he have coped in the 2020 bio-secure environments?
The ex-England bowler (left, with Andrew Flintoff) admits he’d have hated the 2020 bubbles
‘I’d hate it. I think I spent most of my touring life trying to get away from people. Because you spend so much time in each other’s pockets, I always looked to create my own personal space and being trapped in a bubble with no chance of escape would be something I’d find very difficult. I also think it would have been difficult for my team-mates – I was quite annoying.
‘The beautiful thing about playing international cricket in England is that you can get home to your family, allowing you to forget about cricket and get away from your working environment. If work and downtime are not separated, I don’t think I’d like it.
‘But one positive thing these days is people ask, “How are you? I don’t give a s*** about your cricket, I just want to know you are OK”. In the past, you couldn’t show weakness, because if you showed any little bit it would get pounced on.’
Two players who link Hoggard’s generation and the current team are James Anderson and Stuart Broad, and he believes the ‘two legendary bowlers’ can defy the ageists and play in a successful Ashes series this time next year.
Hoggard believes former team-mate James Anderson can play in next year’s Ashes series
‘I believe you should play your best side and I felt sorry for Broady when he got dropped earlier this year because he’d carried the England attack at times over the previous months.
‘I am for playing both of them. If they are fit to bowl the number of overs required by the team, why wouldn’t you pick a duo who have taken over 1,000 wickets?’
And if they can emulate the success of the 2005 team, expect Hoggard to complement whatever he chucks on the barbie with a glass of something nice to toast them.
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