EVEN "Big Time'' Lee Hodgson could not save his side from a crushing defeat. Playing his first match since he caught out West Indies batsman Jerome Taylor in the Test match at Lord's, the 20-year-old scored 40 runs for Salturn Cricket Club against Hartlepool, at the weekend.

However, it was not enough. Saltburn has an unhappy and unbroken knack of losing the toss, with the winning team always electing to bowl first, putting Saltburn into bat - a strategic disadvantage when the ball is new and the wicket fresh.

"We have only played six games this season. We have not won once, but have drawn one. We have not had much luck with the toss of the coin, losing five in a row," bemoaned Simon Walker, chairman of Saltburn Cricket Club.

He tossed the coin and lost again at the weekend.

"They won't let me out of the changing rooms again with a coin," Mr Walker lamented.

Lee shot to fame before an estimated crowd of 25,000 at Lord's, in England's latest Test match.

But the small shoal of freighters and tankers nonchalantly nudging their separate ways through the sky-blue waters of Tees Bay, in full view of the wicket, on Saturday, outnumbered the spectators at the start of play at Marske Mill Lane.

Mr Walker said: "Lord's reputation, basically, is that it is corporate. While there are not too many prawn sandwiches here, the people who do come are stalwarts who have either played or followed cricket all their lives."

A derby match with Guisborough or Great Ayton can see 150 spectators at Marske Mill Lane.

To Lee, one of three brothers, there is no place like home. Next month sees him going for a trial with Northamptonshire, but he says his heart will always be in Saltburn, where he remains a popular member of the team he has grown up with.

His father, Chris, the club's secretary and the weekend's match scorer, says Lee is "level-headed".

He said his son had inherited his skills from great grandfather Arnold Davison, Saltburn's longest-serving professional of nearly 13 years.

Lee said of his Lord's appearance: "I have not let it go to my head, though it was really good experience. And it was a dream. It's not often you get a chance like that - but I enjoy coming back.''

It is his ambition to eventually get a contract to play for one of the county first elevens.

In the meantime, he is determined to help change Saltburn's fortunes. Today, they take on Bishop Auckland in a bottom-of-the-table clash in the North Yorkshire and South Durham Premier League.

A famous line in A E Housman's poem, A Shropshire Lad, runs: "See the son of grief at cricket trying to be glad."

Mr Walker will resolutely refuse to flip the coin before today's match - and hope to stave off further grief.

He is convinced a National Lottery grant of £660,000 made to the club six years ago helped Lee sharpen his fielding skills - and so earn him a cameo role while Matthew Hoggard was being treated for a muscle injury.

"We invested in indoor training facilities, the only ones in the area to have them,'' said the club chairman.

"And Lee has grown up with that playing facility, which shows what can be done.''

Scoreboards: Pages 38-4