Though he was born in South Africa, Tim Groenewald has been able to play county cricket as a local player thanks to his English mother and has earned a reputation as a reliable right-arm seamer and a lower-order batsman who is unafraid to chance his arm. He made his first appearance for Warwickshire's second XI as a 20-year-old in 2004, and continued to play for KwaZulu-Natal Inland in the English winter. Further appearances for Warwickshire's second XI came in 2005, and Groenewald played an important role in Warwickshire's run to the Semi-Final of the Second Eleven Trophy as a first-change seamer. His first appearance for the first XI came against Cambridge UCCE in 2006, and he made his first XI List A and Twenty20 debuts in the same season. Opportunities were limited at Warwickshire, however, and he left for Derbyshire at the end of the 2008 season by mutual consent. The move proved a fruitful one, as he topped the county's first-class bowling averages in 2009, taking 34 wickets at 27.08 with a career-best of 6 for 50 against Surrey at Whitgift School - one of two six-wicket hauls. At the end of the 2009, he extended his contract until at least the end of 2010.
Liam Brickhill