Cricket News: Hayden hopes to figure in record books (28 June 1997)

Saturday 28 June 1997

Cricket News: Hayden hopes to figure in record books

By Clive Ellis

MATTHEW Hayden is not in action in the present round of championship games, but the Australian opener still stands an excellent chance of being the first player to reach 1,000 runs this season. His tally to date is 899.

If he is the first to four figures it will complete a notable double. In 1992 he became the first Australian player to score 1,000 runs in his debut season.

Hayden will be hoping that he does not suffer the same rapid decline into obscurity as Tony Middleton, the last Hampshire player to lead the way into four figures, in 1992.

He was chosen for the England A tour of Australia the following winter, but was released at the end of the 1995 season at 31, and is now Hampshire`s youth development officer. He still plays club cricket for Bournemouth in the Southern League.

FIRST TO 1,000 RUNS

1996 Michael Bevan (Yorks) June 24 1995 David Byas (Yorks) June 29 1994 Brian Lara (Warwicks) June 6 1993 Hugh Morris (Glam) July 1 1992 Tony Middleton (Hants) June 17 1991 Hugh Morris (Glam) June 20 1990 Jimmy Cook (Somerset) June 7 1989 Jimmy Cook (Somerset) June 21 1988 Graeme Hick (Worcs) May 28 1987 Martin Crowe (Somerset) July 1 1986 Graeme Hick (Worcs) July 17

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THE close bond between the late Denis Compton and the Wombwell Cricket Lovers has been reflected in the society`s Denis Compton Memorial Award.

Appropriately, the winner will be the player who, over the season, demonstrates the kind of flair and joie de vivre that created the Compton legend.

And even at this early stage, Darren Gough, born just down the road from Wombwell, in Barnsley, looks as if he will take a lot of beating.

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SO IS 1997 shaping up as the king of rainy summers? Not according to the figures.

Based on complete days lost in the County Championship, the programme has been considerably more disrupted than in 1995 or 1996, but the previous four years were equally badly hit in the first part of the season.

At least the lottery of bowl-outs was averted in the NatWest Trophy on Tuesday, but perhaps it is time the dice were loaded a little in the favour of Minor Counties sides by guaranteeing them home ties in the first round.

The overall score in the six years since Hertfordshire beat Derbyshire in a bowl-out is: Counties 84, Minor Counties, Scotland, Ireland and Holland 0.

CHAMPIONSHIP DAYS LOST (not including current matches).- 1997: 25 out of 260. 1996: 11 (244). 1995: 6 (232). 1994: 23 (240). 1993: 26 (232). 1992: 22 (228). 1991: 23 (205).

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SURREY`S floodlit wash-out on Thursday also put paid to Mark Bowen`s grand entrance. The Nottinghamshire tail-ender had rejected macho anthems and would have marched to the wicket accompanied by the theme tune from Bullseye, the cerebrallychallenged darts-based quiz.

The explanation, naturally enough, is that he rejoices in the nickname Jim, in tribute to the host of Bullseye, Jim Bowen.

Nottinghamshire`s resourceful showing in the championship this season is mirrored by 29-year-old Bowen`s personal progress - 34 wickets at 21 apiece.

Unusually for a county cricketer, Bowen has a degree in chemical engineering and in the winter works for British Nuclear Fuels in the product purification section at Sellafield.

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RICHIE Richardson has been as good as his word. The Maidstonebased side Lashings pulled off a considerable coup in recruiting the former West Indies captain and he returns this weekend to fulfil his promise at the end of last season that he would return to play in Kent.

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Source :: The Electronic Telegraph (https://www.telegraph.co.uk/)