Clarke Makes His Mark

Warwickshire all-rounder Rikki Clarke has set the pace in the race for the Walter Lawrence Trophy this season with a 78-ball hundred, which included 20 fours, scored against Hampshire at Edgbaston in the County Championship Division One match on April 24. The 27-year-old, who has played in two Tests and 20 One-Day Internationals for England, joined the Bears in August, 2008 after a frustrating few months at Derbyshire, where he had moved to as captain after six years at Surrey.

Celebrating its 75th year, the Trophy, awarded for the fastest hundred of the season, is open to all domestic county competitions, with centuries scored in the Friends Provident Trophy (50-over format), NatWest Pro40 League (40-over format), and Twenty20 Cup (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.

The winner will be presented with the Trophy and a cheque for £5,000 at a special end-of-season lunch in the Long Room at Lord’s. Last year, Essex’s Graham Napier triumphed with a sensational 44-ball century in a Twenty-20 Cup match against Sussex at Chelmsford. Napier, whose hundred included nine sixes and nine fours, became the first winner of the Trophy with a limited-over innings.

The front runner for the Walter Lawrence Trophy award, of a silver medallion and prize of £1,000, for the highest score by a batsman from the six MCC Universities against one of the other five University Centres of Cricketing Excellence or against one of the first-class counties is 21-year-old wicket-keeper Paul Dixey of Durham UCCE, who scored 103 against Lancashire at Durham on April 13.