 Andrew "Freddie" Flintoff MBE
St. Annes - Lancashire - England
Andrew Flintoff joined St. Annes as a twelve year old junior player in 1989 coming from Harris Park CC in Preston. He very soon demonstrated his talent and gained a reputation as a hard hitting player. He progressed to the senior IV team as a 13 year old and by the time he was 14 had established a regular second team place. He made his first XI debut in 1992 at the age of 14 against Chorley making 23 runs. Andrew was signed by Lancashire as a professional in 1995 at the age of sixteen but his form was poor and Lancashire allowed him to return to St Annes to rebuild his confidence. He hit two centuries in the 1996 season and he also achieved his highest score in the Northern League of 125 not out.
Evidence of Andy's hardhitting can still be seen in the houses that border the St. Annes ground with a number of replaced roof tiles. One incident that the club members still recount is when Andy hit one of his many sixes over the netting with the ball smashing a window and one unlucky resident's toilet bowl. The clubs insurance premiums and claims also reflected Andy's presence.
He made his Lancashire second XI debut against Glamorgan in 1995 at the age of fifteen and his first XI
debut in 1997 in a one day match against Minor Counties. He established himself as a regular in the first XI during the 1997 season.
 He gained his first experience of playing for England when he was picked for
the U/19 side which he captained for a time. He gained senior honours as part of the 1997-98 England A tour, followed by his full test debut against South Africa in 1998. He played little part in England's success, being out of form with bat and ball, securing a "pair" in the 5th Test. He was selected for the 1998-99 England A tour and made the most of his opportunity having a fine tour with bat and ball, form that earned him a place in England's one day squad for Sharjah, and for the 1999 World Cup. In 2000 Andy played in 1 test match
against Zimbabwe before injury forced him to withdraw from the second test. He established a regular one day place in the triangular tournament against Zimbabwe and West Indies. Selected for the 2000 tour to Pakistan and after his best England performance, injury forced Andy to return early from the 2000 tour to Pakistan, but he was recalled to the squad when other injuries hit the team although he missed out on final selection.
Andy played in the one day tournaments in Sri Lanka in spring 2001, and also in the Zimbabwe tour in the Autumn. He is currently playing in the full England team in India after being called up from the Academy in Australia at short notice.
He was voted Young Player of the Year for 1998 by the Professional Cricketers' Association in England.
He is a keen golfer sharing the same agent as Lee Westwood. As on the cricket field, Andy hits the golf ball long and hard but he finds it difficult to hit the fairways. He has played in several pro-celebrity golf tournaments and was recently a guest on the BBC Question of Sport quiz.
Andy returned to St. Annes to play as part of a Lancashire XI against his former team in Ian Austin's benefit match in 2000. As a result of his innings, two cars were damaged on the opposite side of the road, (he cleared the houses!) and he also left his mark by once more inflicting roof damage on the adjacent houses.
2005 - What A Year!
Without a doubt 2005 was Flintoff's year.
He started the year in South Africa helping England to a series victory before injury forced him to withdraw from the one day international series. He returned home for surgery on a chronic ankle injury and then battled his way to fitness in time for the summer test series against Australia. March 5th saw Andrew marry Rachel but there was to be no honeymoon as his determination to return to full fitness in time for England's Ashes campaign in the summer led him to make the ultimate sacrifice.
In June Flintoff returned to international action in the Nat West series against Bangladesh and Australia but it was July that heralded the Ashes series.
 In five tests Andrew Flintoff established himself as England's greatest allround cricketer since the days of Ian Botham, producing a succession of inspirational performances that saw him make 402 runs and take 24 wickets and carry his team to Ashes glory in possibly the greatest Test series of all time. He was Man of the Series and propelled Flintoff to the sort of superstar status normally reserved for footballers or Olympic heroes. Who can forget the sight of a very "red-eyed" Flintoff staggering towards the open topped bus on the day after the Ashes victory?
The Ashes may have been the highlight of his sporting year but more was to follow with him being made a Freeman of his home city of Preston, winning both the BBC North West Sports Personality of the Year and the national BBC Sports Personality of the Year awards and then being awarded with the MBE in the New Years Honours list.
2006
2006 will need to be some year to top the achievements of 2005 but it got off to a good start when in March Michael Vaughan and Marcus Trescothick both left the tour to India it was Flintoff who was made captain of the national team. Arguably this as been his finest hour to date stepping into the breach as England's captain, on an injury-plagued tour of India in spring 2006. Leading from the front magnificently, he grabbed 11 wickets and scored five fifties in six innings, as England defied the odds to draw the series 1-1 but lost the 7 match ODI series 5 - 1. Flintoff was rested for the final three matches.
Summer 2006 saw Flintoff back under the surgeons knife with a recurrence of his ankle injury and he was a doubt until almost the last moment as to whether he would make the 2006 - 07 Ashes touring side. With Michael Vaughan once more ruled out through injury Flintoff was named as captain of the national side to defend the Ashes in Australia. A poorly prepared England team lost the series in a 5 - 0 whitewash with an out of form Flintoff having little impact with bat or ball in the series.
2007
 Michael Vaughan's return to fitness relieved Flintoff of the pressure of captaincy; a pressure that many said that he was not ready to face but chairman of selectors David Graveney said,
"I take my hat off to him because it was a very difficult job to do and he has done it as well as he possibly could. We've made a lot of errors, but the appointment of the captain is not one of them."
"Freddie was doing a job in Michael's absence and he understood it. It was not a question of being sacked. He will be the same as everybody else, he will be supporting the team and he is hurting the same way everyone else is but now we're looking forward to a fresh start."
 Andy still visits the club and he kindly donated his first England shirt, signed by the team, to the club and this can be seen on the wall of the clubhouse.
Born: 6 December 1977, Preston, Lancashire
Major Teams:Lancashire, England
Known As: Andrew Flintoff
Nickname:Freddie (Flintstone)
Batting Style: Right Hand Bat
Bowling Style: Right Arm Medium
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