 He was able to combine his love of cricket with his college duties by instituting the biannual cricket matches between the History Department and his village cricket team of North Moreton for whom he was wicketkeeper and captain.One regularly told story was that he conducted an interview out on the cricket square when one potential teaching student applied who was already on the books of Yorkshire Cricket Club!Unfortunately for Howat, the student did not take up the place which was presumably offered to him, but did go on to have a reasonably successful cricket career.