Former cricketer Tincknell is hoping to make his point

8:48pm Wednesday 14th July 2010

By Sportsdesk

Perhaps unsurprisingly for a club that shares a stadium with Yorkshire County Cricket Club, Leeds Carnegie have had their fair share of handy cricketers.

Head coach Neil Back was a talented cricketer during his playing days, and former fly half Gordon Ross represented Scotland and, of course, Liam Botham played professionally at cricket and both codes of Rugby.

However, new signing James Tincknell is the only one to have ever played for England at Lord’s.

The 21-year-old has joined Leeds Carnegie for the pre-season, having impressed at Wharfedale last season and toured Canada with the England Counties side during the summer.

Originally from Cumbria, Tincknell played cricket for Durham before spending time in Australia and then joining the MCC Young Cricketers.

In 2008, he was 12th man for England when they took on South Africa at Lord’s and spent time on the pitch as a replacement fielder.

Two years ago, Tincknell faced a crossroads in his sporting career when a back injury meant his cricketing future was in serious doubt.

Work commitments brought him to Leeds and he decided to return to rugby – the game he loved at school – and turned out for Old Otliensians in Yorkshire Division Three.

The following year he moved to Wharfedale, where he impressed the Leeds Carnegie scouts enough to earn a contract for this season.

Tincknell is now embarking on his first ever professional pre-season in rugby but says that he is loving every minute.

He said: “It is really tough and nothing like the training we used to do in cricket.

“I find myself wrestling a 19-stone Samoan one minute then doing sprints or ice baths or lifting weights. It is a hard schedule but you can feel the good it is doing.

“The tour to Canada with England Counties came as a real surprise as well, so it has been a real whirlwind over the past 18 months.”

Tincknell added: “I want to strive to play first-team rugby and try and progress as a player at Leeds.

“It has been a dream how things have panned out but I am just grateful that I have got the opportunity to play Aviva Premiership Rugby.”

Meanwhile Settle’s Chris Walker is one of three Carnegie players to be loaned out to Championship side Doncaster Knights after they struck a deal with Leeds under the RFU dual registration arrangements.

The other Carnegie Academy players going to Doncaster for the 2010-11 season are fly half or centre Chris-tian Lewis-Pratt and lock James Craig.

Knights’ director of rugby Lynn Howells said that the agreement had been reached after two very positive meetings with Andy Key and Neil Back and which he saw being a win-win situation for the players, Leeds and Doncaster.

For the players, it was an opportunity to play Championship rugby; for Leeds it allowed three of their developing players to experience competitive rugby at a high level while remaining in a full-time environment and for the Knights it allowed them to supplement their 27-man full-time squad with some quality players in three positions where they were short.

Former North Ribblesdale player Walker is an 18-year-old open-side flanker who has just embarked on a tour of South Africa with the England Under-18 squad.

He will captain the side in their first tour match on Saturday against a Namibia Invitation side at the Borders Stadium in East London (11.50am).