Ed Joyce will ring the bell to signal five minutes before the start of play on Day One of the historic England v Ireland Specsavers Test match at Lord’s on Wednesday.
Born in Dublin to a cricketing family (two brothers and two sisters also played at the highest level), the stylish left-handed batsman retired from the game last year, having represented both Ireland and England during his international career.
Joyce made nearly 18,500 first-class runs in a career that spanned 21 years, and also scored over 10,000 runs in List A cricket. He represented both Middlesex and Sussex in county cricket, and later Leinster in the new Irish first-class system.
He made his debut for Ireland in the mid-nineties and played for them up until 2005, at which point he completed English residency whilst playing for Middlesex.
His One-Day International debut for England in 2006, was also Ireland’s first ever ODI, played in Belfast. He played seventeen ODIs for England, including a century against Australia in Sydney in 2007.
Returning to play for his native Ireland in 2011, he went on to play a further 61 ODIs, taking in the World Cups staged in 2011 and 2015. He scored a century against Zimbabwe in the latter tournament and his career-best ODI score of 160 not out came against Afghanistan in Belfast in 2016.
Following ICC’s decision to grant Ireland full membership, he played in their historic first Test against Pakistan in Malahide last summer.
Post-retirement, he took on a new role working with Ireland’s batsmen in a coaching role before being named as Head Coach of the country’s women’s team on an interim basis earlier this summer.
The ringing of the five-minute bell at a Lord’s Test by an international cricketer, administrator or well-known enthusiast of the sport is a recent tradition introduced in 2007.
The bell, which is located outside the Bowlers’ Bar of the Lord’s Pavilion, is rung to signify the imminent start of play, and it has become a great honour to be invited to ring it on the morning of a Test match.
Five-minute bell