St Patrick's cricketer Luke Evans reveals the challenges he faced travelling back from England

The English quick had just finished his first season playing for St Patrick's when COVID-19 began to spread globally.

Evans and his partner Lucy, with two children in tow, made it back to the UK for what should have been a summer spent playing cricket and seeing the sights but the pandemic quickly changed their plans.

"We had three days of freedom and then the lockdown happened for three months," Evans said.

"It was very challenging as a young family. We were living in a small house with not much to do other than go out for a walk for an hour each day.

"It looked like no cricket was going to be played but eventually the season started in mid-July when people were allowed back outdoors.

"We played half a season, so we were very fortunate, but that might have been the downfall of the COVID cases going back up when everyone went back outdoors at the end of the summer.

"Towards the end of our time in the UK, it all turned for the worst."

Once again, the timing of the family's travel plans was unfortunate to say the least. Leaving the UK was one thing, re-entering Australia quite another.

"We had four or five flights cancelled," Evans, who needed an exemption visa to travel, revealed.

"We got to the bag drop and they said 'sorry, there's no seat on the plane for you today.' That happened several times.

"It was really hard, more so for Lucy and (her son) Harry, because they wanted to get back to their family in Albury. It was a hard time for us all and it was hard to see Lucy like that because I knew how much she wanted to get back.

"The uncertainty of not knowing when we could get back was very overwhelming. Losing that freedom of movement, to be where you want to be, wasn't the nicest feeling in the world."

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Two weeks of mandatory hotel quarantine in Perth was "an interesting experience" for Evans, who now values the freedom of day-to-day mundanities more than ever.

"We learnt not to take even the smallest things for granted," he said. "What we've had to go through, it's definitely brought us closer together.

"Albury does feel like home now. I've never felt more involved at a cricket club than I do at St Patrick's.

"There's always something going on, loads of people at training and people coming back to the ground after a game on a Saturday, meeting up and going to the pub.

"I've made good friends and got to know them all on a deeper level. They're really good people."

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