Fulton joins an elite group of New Zealand batsmen

Canterbury's Peter Fulton joined some select cricketing company when scoring his 301 not out against Auckland at Christchurch's Hagley Oval today in their State Championship cricket match.

For a start, the 24-year-old right-handed batsman ended Otago's proud record of having been the home province of the five players who had scored the six previous triple centuries by New Zealanders.

Bert Sutcliffe (twice), Roger Blunt, Glenn Turner, Ken Rutherford and Mark Richardson were all associated with the Otago province when scoring their triple centuries.

But perhaps more significantly, Fulton surpassed the previous highest maiden century in New Zealand cricket when beating the record of 290 scored by W N "Bill" Carson for Auckland against Otago in the summer of 1936/37.

Carson was playing only the second first-class match of his career when he achieved his feat.

Carson won selection in the 1937 tour to England as a result of that innings, the first step towards becoming a double All Black, the title by which New Zealand's cricket/rugby internationals are known.

Carson did not have the greatest of tours, his highest score being 84 against Northamptonshire but during his 31-match first-class career which ended with his volunteering for war service in World War Two, he hit four centuries and scored 1535 runs at an average of 34.88.

When he scored his 290, it was part of a world-record third-wicket stand of 445 runs with Paul Whitelaw. Soon after that innings he scored 194 for Auckland against Wellington.

An outstanding soldier, Carson won the Military Cross and took part in the famous bayonet charge at the Battle of Galatas during the Crete campaign. He was twice seriously wounded before finally suffering injuries from which he did not recover in the Italian campaign and he died at sea.

Before completing his innings today for Canterbury, Fulton's previous highest score had been 84. In the matches before the latest round of games he had scored 180 runs at 25.71. In his 10 previous career first-class matches he had scored 471 runs at 33.64.