Rogers the Front Runner

Derbyshire’s Australian opener Chris Rogers has eased his way into the lead in this year’s Walter Lawrence Trophy with a 127-ball hundred. The 32-year-old left-hander feasted on the bowling of Surrey, in the County Championship Division Two match at The Oval on April 12, by scoring 200 in the first innings and followed that with the fastest hundred of the season, which included 13 fours, before finishing on 140.

Rogers, who has had previous stints with Leicestershire and Northants and has played in one Test for Australia, thus becomes the first Derbyshire batsman in history to score a double and single hundred in the same game.

Now enjoying its 76th year, the Trophy, awarded for the fastest hundred of the season, is open to all domestic county competitions, including the Clydesdale Bank 40 (40-over format), and Friends Provident T20 (20-over format), as well as One-Day Internationals and Twenty20 Internationals, all eligible alongside those scored in the County Championship and Test Matches in England.

Last year’s winner of the Trophy, who also collected a cheque for £5,000, was Worcestershire’s Vikram Solanki, who smote a 47-ball hundred against Glamorgan in the T20 match at New Road, Worcester.

Leading the way in this season’s Walter Lawrence Trophy award for the highest innings by a batsman from the six MCC Universities, scored against one of the other five MCC University Centres of Cricketing Excellence or against one of the first-class counties this season is Greg Smith of Durham MCCU. The 21-year-old scored 114, which included 13 fours and 4 sixes, in the drawn game against Nottinghamshire at The Racecourse Ground in Durham on April 11.