It’s Demolition Dan

Dan Christian has blasted his way into the lead for this year’s Walter Lawrence Trophy after smashing a 37-ball hundred for Notts Outlaws against Northants in the Vitality Blast match at Northampton on July 6. Christian’s blistering innings was the second fastest in domestic T20 games, equalling Trophy winner Scott Styris in 2012, but 3 short of Andrew Symonds’ 34-baller in 2004.

Skippering the side, the 35-year-old Aussie all-rounder came in at number 6 with Notts on 81 for 4 and proceeded to unleash a barrage of boundaries, 8 sixes and 7 fours, in his century, before finishing unbeaten on 113 and his team on 219 for 6: a total which Northants fell short of chasing by 58 runs.

Christian, who previously won the Walter Lawrence Trophy jointly with Sam Billings in 2014 when playing for Middesex, joined Nottinghamshire in 2015 and has become a highly experienced ‘hired gun’ in limited-over cricket. The Sydney-born graduate of Cricket Australia’s indigenous cricket program and captain of the national indigenous development squad during a tour of England in 2009 has played for Gloucestershire, Hampshire and Middlesex, as well as Brisbane Heat, Deccan Chargers, Delhi Daredevils, Rising Pune Supergiant, Royal Challengers Bangalore, Trinbago Knight Riders, and Hobart Hurricanes. He has represented his country in 19 One-Day Internationals and 16 T20 Internationals and played for three State sides starting at New South Wales, before moving to South Australia and then to Victoria.

Now in its 84th 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.

Northamptonshire v Nottinghamshire scorecard
Dan Christian’s career statistics

Nat The Superbat

England all-rounder, Natalie Sciver leads the chase for this year’s Walter Lawrence Women’s Award after scoring an awesome 180 not out, off just 98 balls, for Surrey Women against Derbyshire Women at Spondon CC on May 27. In the ECB Women’s County Championship, Division 2 match, her whirlwind knock, which included 33 fours and 1 six, set up a crushing 354-run win, in which she also took 3 wickets for 6 runs.

The Tokyo-born 25-year-old, who won the Walter Lawrence Women’s Award in 2014, has become one of the world’s great women’s players and, along with two of her 2017 World-Cup-winning team mates, was named one of Wisden’s Five Cricketers of The Year.

Evans Above!

Sam Evans is this year’s winner of the Walter Lawrence MCC Universities Award with a score of 217 for Loughborough MCCU. Evans pipped his Loughborough team-mate Hassan Azad, who scored 204 in May, to post his double-century against Leeds/Bradford MCCU at the Haselgrave Ground. His spirited innings, on June 14, came off 281 balls, including 30 fours and 3 sixes.

A product of the Grace Road Academy, the 20-year-old Leicester-born opener joined the county’s staff on a three-year contract last year and made his County Championship debut against Northants in the final game of 2017. Earlier in the season, Evans had scored 114 for Loughborough against the same opposition in just his second first-class innings. In addition to representing his county and university, Sam has spent his whole career playing club cricket for Leicester Ivanhoe CC.

His Loughborough coach, the former Leicestershire and Northern Transvaal batsman Russell Cobb, was delighted for Evans and was full of praise for the Walter Lawrence award, which began in 2006, expressing his thanks “for your continued support of such a great scheme for our talented cricketers who wish to secure a degree”.

Evans, who is currently in the 2nd year of a geography degree, is the second Loughborough winner, following Rob White in 2016. He will receive a special silver medallion and prize of £500 at the Walter Lawrence Trophy Presentation Dinner in The Long Room at Lord’s on November 6.

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.