Outlaw Joe Steals The Show

Joe Clarke of Nottinghamshire Outlaws is the runaway winner of this year’s Walter Lawrence Trophy with a blazing 44-ball hundred scored in the 2020 Vitality Blast match against Durham on August 29.

Joe Clarke

Chasing a total of 182, the 24-year-old was dropped on 8 before sharing a second-wicket stand of 105 and finishing with an unbeaten 100 to see his side home with 28 balls to spare. His innings, which included 7 fours and 8 sixes, was only the fourth T20 hundred scored by a Notts Outlaw. Reflecting on the century, his second against Durham, Clarke said: ‘The mentality was from ball-one to put pressure on the bowlers. Getting a T20 hundred is special and to then get another one is very special’. The Nottinghamshire side went on to win the Vitality Blast Final at a rain-soaked Edgbaston on October 4, with Clarke their leading scorer in the campaign, compiling 371 runs at an average of 37.10.

Clarke was born in Shrewsbury and started his cricket career with Shropshire before joining the Worcestershire Academy and the England Under-19s. He made his first-class debut for Worcestershire against Hampshire at Southampton in 2015 and, in the same year, was called up for England Lions for their tour against Pakistan A in Dubai, where he became the first teenage debutant since Joe Root.

After successful seasons at Worcestershire, where he scored 12 Championship hundreds, the ambitious and highly talented batsman and wicket-keeper was snapped up by Nottinghamshire in 2018.

Joe becomes the seventh Nottinghamshire player to win the Walter Lawrence Trophy, now in its 86th year, joining Joe Hardstaff in 1937, Cyril Poole (1949), Garfield Sobers (1968 and 1974), Paul Johnson (1993), Chris Cairns (1995) and Mark Ealham (2006).

Durham v Nottinghamshire scorecard
Joe Clarke’s career statistics

VIDEO: Durham v Nottinghamshire Outlaws, Vitality Blast T20, 29 August 2020

Astounding Adams

Georgia Adams has won this year’s Walter Lawrence Women’s Award with a stunning unbeaten score of 154 for Southern Vipers against Western Storm in the Rachael Heyhoe Flint Trophy. The 26-year-old Vipers captain and opener hit 20 fours in her innings off 155 balls at the Ageas Bowl on September 13, setting up a crucial 32-run victory and a place in the competition Final.

Georgia, who is the daughter of former England, Derbyshire and Sussex cricketer and coach, Chris Adams, completed a sensational campaign in The RHF trophy by skippering her side to victory against Northern Diamonds in the Final at Edgbaston. Leading from the front again she scored 80 off 102 balls enabling the Vipers to post a total of 231, which proved 32 runs too many for the opposition. Her outstanding performances in the tournament, in which she accrued 500 runs at an average of 83, saw her win the Most Valuable Player award.

Born in Chesterfield, Georgia is the current captain of Sussex and in May last year she became the youngest player to reach 100 appearances for the county. She has played for England under-19s and in 2016 she represented the England Academy team in matches against Sri Lanka. In July, in a scheme put in place by the ECB to support the women’s game through the Covid-19 pandemic, Georgia was one of 25 elite women’s players across England and Wales who was put on a regional retainer contract.

As well as Southern Vipers, she has also played for Loughborough Lightning in the Kia Super League and has signed for the Oval Invincibles in the forthcoming Hundred competition.

Regarding her Walter Lawrence Trophy-winning, unbeaten innings of 154, Georgia recalls: ‘I was trying to bat and bat and bat. And after I reached 100, every time I tried to hit the ball it just seemed to ping off the middle. Days like that don’t happen very often’. Georgia’s impressive form will not have gone unnoticed by England’s new coach, Lisa Keightley, who brought her into the Academy set up and sent her a congratulatory message after the knock.

Georgia is the ninth winner of the Walter Lawrence Women’s Award joining, amongst others, England trio Heather Knight, Nat Sciver and Tammy Beaumont who have all won it twice.

The Walter Lawrence Trophy is awarded for the fastest hundred of the season and is open to all domestic county competitions as well as One-Day Internationals, T20 Internationals and Test matches in England. The Walter Lawrence Women’s Award is awarded for the highest individual score in a season from ECB Women’s one-day competitions and all England Women’s matches played on home soil.