On Sunday, though, he will lead his team-mates out at Lord's in the final of the National Village Championship against Gloucestershire County League club Apperley.

So it is understandable that the Methley captain is struggling to come to terms with the reality of what he inevitably describes as ``something every cricketer in the world dreams about.''

Yet one of McHale's first thoughts as he prepares for the walk through the Long Room and out on to the most famous cricket ground in the world will be for his predecesor Lee Mills, who will also be a member of the Methley line-up on Sunday. ``Lee had genuine personal reasons for giving up the captaincy but he is bound to wonder about what might have been,'' says McHale.

Mills is not the only member of the Methley squad with an extra incentive on Sunday, however, for he is one four players who will be on duty at Lord's who endured the torment of a last-ball defeat in the final six years ago.

``Everybody at the club is desperate to make up for that defeat,'' says McHale, formerly with Selby Londesborough in the York Senior League.''

However Methley's success in league and cup competitions in recent years has not met with wholesale approval among their peers and the celebrations surrounding Sunday's game have been marred by problems off the field.

Ossett, their opponents in a Central Yorkshire League match on Saturday, have been reluctant to switch dates to accommodate Methley's big day while the Yorkshire Council declined to allow them to move their inter-league play-off game, scheduled for Sunday, forward to Bank Holiday Monday.

``It's a shame,'' admits McHale with masterly understatement. ``And it looks as if we'll have to give up our place in the play-offs because everyone in Methley will be down at Lord's. You would think people would try to help us instead of putting obstacles in our way.''