Rishi In A Rush

Leicestershire’s Rishi Patel has won this year’s Walter Lawrence Trophy, awarded for the fastest hundred of the season, with a 41-ball century scored against Northamptonshire in the Vitality Blast game on June 21. The match at Northampton ended in a tie with opener Patel on the charge, chasing the opposition’s total of 208-5, and laying Leicestershire’s foundation with a bristling innings of 104, which included 13 fours and 5 sixes. His hundred was the joint second-fastest (with Ben Raine) by an English player in T20 cricket. The fastest being 2015 Walter Lawrence Trophy winner, David Willey, with 40 balls.

Born in Chigwell and educated at Brentwood School, the 26-year-old is a product of Essex’s academy, signing a professional contract with the county in 2018 and quickly showing his prowess by equalling Darren Robinson’s 2nd XI record of five centuries in a season that year. He subsequently began a Sports Science degree at Anglia Ruskin university and, ironically, made his maiden first-class appearance against Essex for the Cambridge MCCU team in March, 2019. He made four Championship appearances during the club’s 2019 title-winning campaign before moving to Leicestershire in 2020 on a three-year deal.

On April 9, 2023, Patel scored his maiden first-class century leading Leicestershire to defeat Yorkshire for the first time since 1910 by three wickets. To date, Patel has scored 2,525 first-class runs, including 5 hundreds and 9 fifties, as well as 2,024 runs, including 4 hundreds and 5 fifties, in limited-over cricket. He has also represented Birmingham Phoenix in The Hundred.

Rishi is the first Leicestershire player to win the Trophy for 55 years and only the third from the county following Peter Marner in 1970 and Brian Davison in 1971, both of whom won when the award when it was judged on minutes not balls faced. Along with the Trophy, he will receive £2,500 plus a special medallion at the Walter Lawrence Trophy Presentation Dinner in the Long Room at Lord’s on November 6. Rishi is delighted and grateful to win the award, but is ‘gutted’ that he will miss the Dinner as he will be playing for Bayswater in Melbourne over the winter.

The Walter Lawrence Trophy, now in its 90th year, 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, The Hundred and Test matches in England.

Northamptonshire v Leicestershire scorecard
Rishi Patel’s career statistics

VIDEO:HIGHLIGHTS | Patel Smashes Century In Final-Ball Tie, Vitality Blast, 21 June 2024

All About Eve

Eve Jones has won this year’s Walter Lawrence Women’s Award, for the highest score of the season, with an unbeaten 136 for Central Sparks against Thunder in the Rachael Heyhoe Flint Trophy at Old Trafford on May 8. Captaining the side and chasing a formidable total of 284 for 7, Eve opened the innings and carried her bat to see Central Sparks to victory by 3 wickets with just 2 balls to spare. The 32-year-old all-rounder’s 136 was scored off 148 balls and included 15 fours. As if to underline her worthy status as this year’s winner, Eve also scored the season’s second-highest score, 130 , for Central Sparks against Western Storm in the same competition.

Born in Shrewsbury, Eve made her county debut in 2008 for Shropshire and quickly asserted herself as one of the county’s most successful players, becoming their leading run-scorer in both their 2010 and 2011 seasons. In 2012 she moved to Staffordshire where she continued her rich vein of form and was their top run scorer in the 2014, 2015 and 2016 seasons.

In 2017 she was on the move again, this time to Lancashire, where she was part of the side that won the County Championship and Twenty20 Cup double that season. She became captain of the side the following season, before joining Warwickshire in 2021.

Eve’s limited-over career has seen her play for Loughborough Lightning in 2016 and Lancashire Thunder from 2017-2019 before joining Central Sparks in 2020, where she was named captain and became a prolific run scorer. At the end of the 2021 season, Eve was named as the first-ever PCA Women’s Overall Domestic MVP for her performances in the Rachael Heyhoe Flint Trophy, Charlotte Edwards Cup and The Hundred, and was later voted the overall PCA Player Of The Year. Later that year she was named captain of England’s A squad for their tour to Australia, with the matches being played alongside the Women’s Ashes.

In addition to the aforementioned teams, Eve has also represented Manchester Originals, Birmingham Phoenix, Melbourne Renegades and Canterbury Magicians. In September she was loaned to Lancashire Thunder for the latter stages of the Rachael Heyhoe Flint Trophy before rejoining them permanently after signing a three-year contract for 2025. She finished the season as the competition’s second-highest run scorer with 650 runs (avge.42.76) in 15 innings.

Eve graduated with a BA (hons) in Fine Art at Oxford Brookes University in 2013 and has an ECB Level 3 Coaching Qualification. She is the second Central Sparks player to win the Walter Lawrence Women’s Award, after Amy Jones in 2021, and will receive £2,500 plus a special medallion at the Walter Lawrence Trophy Presentation Dinner in the Long Room at Lord’s on November 6.

The Walter Lawrence Women’s Award is for the player who makes the highest individual score in a season from ECB domestic cup games and all England Women’s matches played on home soil.

Laird Lords It Over MCC

Julian Laird of Magdalen College School is this year’s Walter Lawrence Schools Award winner with a sumptuous, unbeaten innings of 157 scored against MCC. Chasing MCC’s total of 283 for 2 declared, the 17-year-old opener’s knock was scored off 143 balls and included 2 sixes and 23 fours, spearheading his team to a thumping 9-wicket victory on June 25.

The youngest of three brothers, who all play cricket, Julian enjoyed a highly successful school season in which he scored four hundreds and finished with an average over 100. He considers his unbeaten 157 as probably his best knock so far.

Outside of school, Julian, who bats left-handed and bowls left-arm spin, began his cricketing development on the Oxfordshire Pathway before joining the Sussex Academy in 2023. He played his first game for Sussex 2nd XI this summer and in two Minor Counties games. As well as his love for cricket, Julian plays National League hockey and is a keen golfer.

Next year will be Julian’s last at school, after which he plans to take a gap year to play cricket in Australia, before going to university.

He is the 14th winner of the Schools Award since its inception and he will receive his prize of a special medallion and a Gray-Nicolls bat at the Walter Lawrence Trophy Presentation Dinner in the Long Room at Lord’s on November 6.

The Walter Lawrence Schools Award is for the highest score by a school batter against MCC.