An amateur cricketer suspended over a finger-clicking wicket deception apparently used the same trick to secure a league championship in 2023, according to footage uncovered by the Daily Mail.
Brian Devine, now widely known online as “Clicky Ponting,” captained Pudsey St Lawrence to the Bradford Premier League second-tier title that year. The club had to beat local rivals Pudsey Congs convincingly in a 50-over derby on the final day of the season to claim the trophy.
Pudsey St Lawrence won the match by eight wickets. Devine, 38, was photographed holding the championship trophy aloft on the club’s social media feeds. The match was live-streamed at the time, and the Daily Mail says it has since obtained that footage.
Three dismissals under suspicion
The footage shows Devine, fielding in the slips, apparently clicking his fingers in timed movements that mimicked the sound of a ball striking a bat, with three Pudsey Congs batsmen given out in circumstances that members of rival clubs now dispute.
The first dismissal came in the ninth over, with the home side on 15 runs. Devine, positioned at third slip, can be seen preparing a clicking motion before the ball passed the bat and landed in the wicketkeeper’s gloves. The batsman, who had scored seven runs, was given out after an appeal led by Devine.
Sixteen minutes later, with the score at 31 for one, a second batsman was dismissed in almost identical fashion after scoring just one run. In the 36th over, with the score at 117 for five, Devine moved to first slip and the same sequence unfolded, with the batsman, again on one run, given out caught. That player shook his head repeatedly as he walked off, appearing to question the decision.
Pudsey Congs were bowled out for 142 in 42.5 overs. Pudsey St Lawrence reached the winning total without further loss of wickets, with 76 balls remaining.
Calls to strip the title
The fresh footage has prompted members of rival clubs to call for the Bradford Premier League to open a formal investigation and for Pudsey St Lawrence to be stripped of the 2023 championship.
One source told the Daily Mail that rival teams had been reviewing surviving film and scorebooks and had concluded Devine had been using the technique for years. The source said young players would have lost opportunities and match results would have been affected. The source also raised the question of what club staff and teammates knew about Devine’s actions.
Pudsey St Lawrence chairman Martin Reed told the Daily Mail the club had not been aware of any issues with Devine’s behaviour during his time there, and said no concerns had been raised by other clubs or officials. Reed said had the club been made aware of any issues at the time, it would have taken appropriate action. He added that the club knew the North Yorkshire and South Durham Cricket League and Saltburn Cricket Club were currently investigating the matter.
Suspension and wider fallout
The title-decider revelations come days after Devine was suspended for the foreseeable future by his current club, Saltburn CC, following accusations he used the same clicking technique during a Second XI Division Two match against Norton. Saltburn won that match by 159 runs. Video of the incident went viral and drew condemnation from commentators internationally, including in Australia.
The Daily Mail had previously reported that Devine’s clicking behaviour had been traced back five years to his time at Pudsey St Lawrence. Statistics cited by the paper show that during the three seasons Devine captained the club, the wicketkeeper took 96 catches at an average of 32 per year. In the two years after Devine’s departure, the same keeper took 22 and 15 catches respectively, with just five so far in the current season.
Pudsey St Lawrence, founded in 1845, produced England Test cricketers Herbert Sutcliffe and Sir Leonard Hutton. New Zealand internationals Mark Greatbatch and Martin Crowe also played for the club. Devine, who works as company secretary and financial manager of a livestock auction house, has not commented on the allegations.
