SO the great man is packing it up. Graeme Hick is going to retire from county cricket and it really is the end of an era.

You only have to go to cricket grounds around the country when he comes out to bat and his name is announced and there is always a very generous round of applause as people appreciate what a great player and a decent bloke he is.

There were varied reactions from people this week and it was summed up for me by a couple of things. While walking into New Road after the announcement a lady said to me it was very sad and I said he was only retiring from the game. She said it felt like the day her son went off to university.

She also said she’d rung her son up at university and told him. His reaction was that Hicky has been playing for Worcestershire all of the young man’s life, and when you come to think of it, you would have to be in your late 20s to remember a Worcestershire team without him in it.

At the end of an emotional press conference on Tuesday a group of hard-bitten journalists actually applauded as Graeme left the New Road marquee. Since covering the cricket I have got to know the Hicks quite well and can honestly say a nicer family would be hard to find.

Best of luck Graeme, you have given a lot of pleasure to many people.

In the Barmaids Bosom one evening this week we were talking about Hicky and the usual subjects that crop up – the price of lard in Lithuania, the gestation period of the one-legged Andalusian tree frog and other mundane subjects.

Big John and Postman Pat were playing darts when John suddenly got a nose bleed. It happens every now and then, so we all came up with ways of stopping his beak shedding the red stuff.

‘Put some ice on it’, ‘put some keys down his back’, ‘open the box’, ‘take the money’, and the like were offered as remedies. Then someone said to give him a shock so we told him Eric the Red had bought a round of drinks. Trust me, it was such a big surprise it stopped his nose bleed, but one or two of the older regulars nearly passed out with shock.

We had great fun on Sunday clearing out the garage, the spare room and, wait for it, the cupboard under the stairs. Well it was a wet day. Six boxes for the charity shop and about the same to the tip.

Start of the rugby on Sunday at Northampton and I’m looking forward to it as the pre-season seems to have gone on forever. In fact, I’m at Southampton doing the cricket on Saturday and at Northampton doing the rugby the next day. I tried to convince my good lady wife they were not far apart but she didn’t fall for it.

* Dave Bradley is the BBC Hereford & Worcester sports correspondent.