Samit Aims For The Summit

On the eve of the NatWestT20 Blast, Nottinghamshire’s Samit Patel led the chase for this year’s Walter Lawrence Trophy with a 68-ball hundred, scored against Warwickshire in the Specsavers County Championship, Division 1 match on May 18. His fighting century, which included 12 fours and 4 sixes, proved sadly in vain as his side lost by 53 runs at Trent Bridge. Patel finished on 124, adding 4 more sixes to his innings.

The 31-year-old all-rounder made his first-class debut in 2002, scoring almost 10,000 runs and taking over 250 wickets, and has represented England in six Tests , 36 One-Day Internationals and 18 T20s.

Now in its 82nd year, the Walter Lawrence Trophy, awarded for the fastest hundred of the season, is open to all domestic county competitions as well as One-Day Internationals, T20 Internationals and Test Matches in England.

Nottinghamshire v Warwickshire scorecard
Samit Patel’s career statistics


White Out In Front

Kylie White is the front runner for this year’s Walter Lawrence Women’s Award with an innings of 147, which was scored off 156 balls and included 22 fours. The Hertfordshire Women’s opener and wicket-keeper helped her side amass a total of 325 for 2, which proved 217 runs too many for Cambridgeshire & Huntingdonshire Women in the Royal London One-Day Cup, Division 4 North & East match at Spicer’s Sports Ground, Sawston, on May 15.

White’s 147 took her to the top of the leader board after leap-frogging Devonshire skipper Aylish Cranstone, who made 134 not out on May 5, and Ami Campbell of Northumberland Women who made 135 on May 15.


Razzle-Dazzle Basil

Basil Akram, Loughborough MCCU’s all-rounder, started the season with a bang and leads the field in pursuit of this year’s MCC Universities Award with a score of 160. Batting at number seven, the 23-year-old’s innings against Surrey on April 1st included 26 fours and 1 six in the drawn match at The Oval, in which he also took 6 wickets.

Clearly relishing county bowling attacks, Enfield-born Akram followed his 160 with 100 not out against Kent, batting at number eight, and 87 against Leicestershire, with both matches being drawn.

The quartet of Walter Lawrence Trophy awards, supported by Veuve Clicquot, encompass four distinct areas of the game: the Walter Lawrence Trophy, for the fastest century of the season; the MCC Universities award for the highest score by a batsman from the six MCC Universities against the first-class counties or in the MCCU Championship; The Walter Lawrence Women’s Award for the batsman who makes the highest individual score in a season from the ECB Women’s One-Day Cup and all England Women’s matches played on home soil, and, finally, the Walter Lawrence Schools Award for the highest score by a school batsman against MCC.