RUSSELL Evans can consider himself one of the unfortunate ones.
At a time when Nottinghamshire County Cricket Club had their strongest side for decades, he was trying to break into the first team as a promising teenage batsman.
En route to the 1985 and 1987 County Championship titles, Notts could select the likes of international stars Sir Richard Hadlee and Clive Rice, England caps Derek Randall, Tim Robinson, Chris Broad, Bruce French, Eddie Hemmings and, when Test call-ups demanded, a host of other senior county professionals who were among the best on the circuit.
It left Calverton-born Evans, who joined the county staff as an 18-year-old after first joining his hometown club and then moving onto Notts Unity Casuals, a near-impossible task of breaking into a line-up that was the envy of every other county.
His maiden ball faced at first team level was delivered by the great West Indian paceman Malcolm Marshall in a John Player Special League match against Hampshire in September 1985, and, despite a score of 20, he did not get another go competitively at first-team level until five years later, this time against Worcestershire in the County Championship.
With competition for places so hot, that was to prove Evans' last senior outing as a player, but by no means was it the end of his association with cricket. In fact, it was really just the beginning.
The 48-year-old is now in the process of following in the footsteps of other former Trent Bridge pros, including good friend David Millns, Robinson and Paul Pollard, in seeking to stand as an umpire at English cricket's top level.
Not only that, he jointly runs his own bat-making company, Bulwell-based B3 Cricket, building on the expertise accrued during a 20-year stint with renowned Nottingham bat manufacturers Gunn and Moore, where he rose to become a highly-respected marketing manager.
It means for a busy cricketing life, but Evans would not have it any other way.
The next step, from an umpiring point of view, is to earn promotion from the ECB reserve list to full list.
"David Millns was telling me how he really enjoyed umpiring and suggested I have a chat with Chris Kelly, who is the ECB umpires' manager," explained Evans. "He told me to umpire anything and everything, see if I enjoyed it and give him a ring in 12 months' time.
"So I did. Things went quite well and I was offered a position on the first class reserve list. This is my fourth season and I have done some Championship, T20 and some of the new Royal London competition this season – it's been fantastic."
But on-field ambitions do not mean that Evans – whose older brother Kevin took 600 senior wickets for Nottinghamshire between 1984 and 2002 – takes a back seat when it comes to his business dealings.
Although a juggling act, given that he can be in Durham one day and Taunton the next, Evans has been a cornerstone in establishing B3.
That's on the back of an approach he says is 'revolutionary' in its sector, where customers can design a bespoke bat online at B3cricket.com, with a mind-boggling 600,000 possible combinations.
Anything from weight, bat handle size and shape, profile, edge width, spines, grips and stickers can be changed to suit individual preference and the finish product is then posted out to anywhere in the world. Because there is no 'middle man', it also makes their pricing competitive, even though every bat is Nottingham made.
Evans said: "The whole idea is to give amateur cricketers the professional cricket bat approach that they weren't getting before.
"If you have an old favourite in your head or a new design you want to try, then you can do that.
"I think we are the only company in the world offering the facility to do it by CAD/CAM design and CNC machine for players of all levels, ensuring it's to the nearest millimetre.
"My old cricket bat is standing up in the corner of the office from 1987 and you can see that the edges are pencil thin, the swell isn't very big at all it doesn't look anywhere near as nice either. It's a completely different beast to what we make at B3 now."
B3 began operations in the summer of 2012 and already they produce 2,500 bats a year. Steven Mullaney (Nottinghamshire), Tom Kohler-Cadmore (Worcestershire) and Mark Footitt (Derbyshire) are brand ambassadors, and the company also now produce bats for New Balance, who boast Australian T20 star Aaron Finch and England's Gary Ballance and Ben Stokes among their stable.
While Evans is away, the business is managed by the other two members of the B3 ownership triumvirate.
Michael Blatherwick was a former Notts junior alongside Paul Johnson and current director of cricket Mick Newell, as well as Evans, and has played for Kimberley Institute for the last 27 years.
Younger brother Steve was a former Notts County trainee and Nottingham Forest player who later went on to enjoy a successful career with Chesterfield.
David Bacon, who also honed his skills at Gunn and Moore, hails from Edwinstowe and has a PhD in material engineering combined with a love of sport engrained from a childhood dominated by motorcycle trialing. He lectures on product design at Sheffield Hallam University and is responsible for many of the innovations B3 have implemented.
"It is a tough ask at times (to mix both roles)," said Evans, whose role includes looking after the accounts and taking care of sponsorship matters. "But having said that I'm in touch daily and all the hotels have Wi-Fi, so I can carry on with the emails.
"It's hugely satisfying when it's your 'own baby'. We're extremely proud of where we are as a local company after two years in business and definitely going in the right direction."
