Once a Bear, Always a Bear - George Furrer

To kickstart this fascinating series of interviews, we caught up with George Furrer, a left-arm seam bowler from Australia who signed his first professional contract with the club in September 2019, although recurring injury issues meant that he sadly never got to represent the club in 1st XI county cricket.

Nevertheless, the 27-year-old still reflects on his time at Edgbaston very fondly, and with an exciting grade cricket final in Sydney coming up on the horizon, we thought that now would be a great time to catch up with him and reminisce on the time that he spent in Shakespeare's County with the mighty Bears. 

Here’s what he had to say:

So George, what are your earliest memories of cricket, either playing or watching the great game?

My earliest memory was playing club cricket for the Roseville Raptors in Sydney. I just remember playing with my best mates from primary school, the weather was great and it was really competitive actually! Some of those guys are still my best mates today so those would be some real core memories…and I’ll never forget the notorious bright green, long-sleeved shirts that we wore as well when everyone else played in white. Yeah, those were some good days with the Raptors.

And during the formative years of that journey, who inspired you the most to continue playing cricket?

Well, I grew up in Australia, so Glenn McGrath was always the idol for me. He was just so accurate, and he never missed his length, so, yeah, he was a big inspiration for me to continue playing cricket. Then of course there was my Dad, Matt, who was just so supportive and always encouraged me to give it a real good crack, so I’d say it was a mix of those two really.

Based off that description, I think I might know the answer to this next question, but why did you choose to become a seam bowler?

To be honest with you, I was never much good at anything else, so I just went with it! If I had my time again though, maybe I would have started bowling a few offies instead…it definitely would have been a lot nicer on my knees, back and ankles etc, that’s for sure.

Favourite delivery as a seamer?

As a left-armer, I’d have to say my favourite ball is the one that angles across the right-hander and nicks them off in the slips. My wrist has never been the best when it comes to shaping it back into the stumps so even if I get pumped through the covers a few times whilst pushing it away from the right-handers, it’s always a nice feeling when you get one that just catches the outside edge.

Which cricket club did you start out at, and which clubs have you played for over the years?

As we touched upon at the beginning, I started out at Roseville in North Sydney. After that, I played some junior cricket for North Shore, I played schools cricket for Barker College and I also went on to play some grade cricket for Northern Districts and Eastern Suburbs, both of which are in Sydney.

Then when I came over to the UK, I played my club cricket for Moseley in the Birmingham League along with County 2nd XI cricket for Warwickshire, Worcestershire and Durham. I also remember playing a couple of games for Solihull Blossomfield which was great fun…I think I only came in for some warm-up games from memory, but yeah, they were a brilliant bunch of guys and I absolutely loved my short time with Bloss!

How did the opportunity to play for Warwickshire first materialise?

Well it’s quite a funny story actually… I was speaking to my agent about playing some cricket during the Australian off season and the topic of a British passport came up. In the back of my mind, I had always envisioned myself finishing my studies and then heading over to the UK to play some club cricket a couple of years later, but then I got a phone call out of nowhere from Peter (my agent) whilst I’m on my way to work and he says, “there’s a county team who want you, but you’re going to have fly to England within the next week.”

As you can probably guess, I quit my job the following day, said goodbye to my family and a couple of days later I was making my way over to Birmingham. At the time, the Bears had a whole load of injuries to their bowlers so once I had my trial period, which went pretty well, Paul Farbrace offered me a contract. I still remember the T20 game towards the end of that trial where I was running drinks on for the lads at Edgbaston and Fidel Edwards took 3 wickets in an over against Leicestershire. I’ll never forget the roar from the crowd on that day, after that I knew that this was the club I wanted to sign for. It was absolutely incredible.

That’s quite the introduction to the Fortress! Would you say that was the highlight from your time in a Warwickshire shirt or did something else surpass it over the years that followed?

It’s a strange one, but I’d have to say just being around the squad during that County Championship-winning season in 2021. Unfortunately, I didn’t get the chance to bowl a ball for the club during that year because of injury and even though I was offered the chance to fly home to Australia, I could just sense that something special was brewing in the camp, so I ended up staying.

For the rest of that season, I was out there running drinks whenever I could and motivating the lads when I wasn’t doing rehab on my injury. Even just being a ‘fly on the wall’ as such in that high performance environment was surreal in a way, and to see so many people doing exactly what was required of them in their respective roles and then executing them consistently on the field was amazing. The fact that the club went on to lift the trophy on the final day of the season was really special too.

And speaking of that final day of the campaign, your face appears in quite a few of the photos from the trophy lift at Edgbaston. I’m guessing you must be quite pleased to have all of those images to look back on?

Yeah, I’ve done really well for myself there, haven’t I? I still remember Josh Poysden sending me a picture from one of these high-performance reviews at the ECB and it’s just an image of my face with the Championship trophy right there! I don’t know how on earth I’ve managed to pull that off, but it’s been absolutely great for my stocks I suppose…

It’s certainly something to tell the grandkids about one day, not many people get to be a part of a County Championship trophy lift. With the power of hindsight though George, how do you reflect on your time with the Bears over those couple of years?

I look on it in two halves if I’m being completely honest. Starting with the good stuff, I have the best memories of spending some quality time with some great lads in a high-performance environment that made me want to get better every single day. The other side of it though was the disappointment that came with the injuries and knowing that I wasn’t able to put my best foot forward after signing a 2.5-year deal.

There were a lot of people who were backing me to succeed at Warwickshire, and I definitely believed in myself too, but ultimately, my back wasn’t having any of it. Reflecting on it all now though, I’m extremely grateful to have even had that opportunity at the club and it left me in a really good place for my eventual move into the corporate world, so they were definitely special times.

Well it should be a source of great pride nevertheless, only a handful of cricketers get the opportunity to experience the sport at that truly elite level, let alone earn a professional deal on top. Speaking of that more corporate side of things though, what are you getting up to nowadays in your career outside of the great game George?

I work for a wind farm developer here in Australia called Someva. We’re currently building a farm along with some batteries at the same location, so I manage the commercial and financial side of things with projects like that basically. We’re only a small company so it’s a challenge but I love my role and I really enjoy what I do.

And do you have any hobbies or interests outside of your work and cricket?

I’d have to say surfing and golf, although I’m pretty terrible at both! With work and cricket commitments, I haven’t been able to do as much of those activities in the past few years, but who knows, that might be something I can explore more once I’ve hung up my boots.

Are there any other interesting facts about you, cricket-related or otherwise, that people might not already know about?

I can play the piano if that counts? We had a karaoke night with work the other week and the place had a piano, so I hopped on and played a bit of ‘Let It Be’ and ‘Bohemian Rhapsody’… you know, songs that people can have a good singalong to. I was in a band when I was younger and it’s just something that I’ve done in the background over the years. It’s great fun.

And finally George, it’s a rather profound question, but what’s been the proudest accomplishment of your life to date?

Again, it’s a slightly strange one but I’d have to say the way I went about being released from my contract at Warwickshire and having the strength to hang around at the club until the end of that Championship win. That was a really tough time, I was away from my friends and my family, and I’d just had my lifelong dream of being a professional cricketer taken away from me essentially; it was shattering.

At that point though, I had a choice to make; I could either be doom and gloom and head back to Australia or I could park those feelings for the sake of the group and help contribute in any way I could to help them achieve the greater goal, and that’s exactly what they did. Looking back, it took a lot of character for me to do that so yeah, I’d say that’s definitely up there for me.