Walter Lawrence Trophy 2018

Guptill Goes Great Guns!

Martin Guptill has won this year’s Walter Lawrence Trophy with a thumping 35-ball hundred scored for Worcestershire against Northants in the Vitality Blast match at Northampton on July 27. The New Zealand opener’s fiery innings is the fastest century from balls faced in the history of the competition, which began including limited-overs innings in 2008. His hundred is the second fastest in domestic T20 games, 1 short of Andrew Symonds’ 34-baller in 2004, and the joint-fourth fastest T20 century of all time.

Martin Guptill

Guptill’s fourth domestic T20 hundred came off 12 fours and 7 sixes and propelled Worcestershire to a 9-wicket victory with 41 balls to spare. Reflecting on the innings Guptill admitted, “I had a slow start and didn’t even realise that I’d reached 50 till everyone started clapping, and I had to ask my partner, Joe Clarke, what had happened! Then to complete a century in 15 balls was pretty pleasing. It’s my quickest hundred by a long way, my previous fastest was in 49 balls for New Zealand against Australia earlier this year.”

The 32-year-old Aucklander has played in 47 Tests to date, and in January this year became the second New Zealand batsman, and the ninth overall, to score a century against each of the nine full-member Test-playing countries. He has played in 159 One-Day Internationals, during which he made 13 hundreds, including an unbeaten 237 against West Indies in the quarter-final of the 2015 World Cup, as well as 75 T20 Internationals.

In addition to his national side and Worcestershire, Guptill’s illustrious career has seen him represent, among others, Auckland, Derbyshire, Lancashire, Guyana Amazon Warriors, Mumbai Indians, Kings XI Punjab, Sydney Thunder and St Kitts & Nevis Patriots. His nickname within the New Zealand team is ‘Two Toes’, owing to an unfortunate accident when, at the age of 13, he lost three toes on his left foot following an accident with a forklift truck.

Following in the footsteps of Ken Rutherford (1994), Chris Cairns (1995) and Scott Styris (2012), Guptill is the fourth New Zealander to win the Trophy, which will be presented, along with a cheque for £3,000 and a special medallion, at the Walter Lawrence Trophy Dinner in The Long Room at Lord’s on November 6.

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 Worcestershire scorecard
Martin Guptill’s career statistics

Walter Lawrence Women’s Award 2018

Superbat Nat

England and Surrey all-rounder, Natalie Sciver has won this year’s Walter Lawrence Women’s Award, thanks to an awesome innings of 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.

Nat Sciver, who is now recognised as one of the world’s great women’s players, claims the Walter Lawrence Women’s Award for the second time after winning it in 2014. She has represented England in 53 One-Day Internationals and 50 T20 Internationals and, along with two of her 2017 World-Cup-winning team mates, gained the accolade of being named as one of Wisden’s Five Cricketers of The Year in the 2018 edition.

The Tokyo-born 26-year-old has enjoyed another stellar summer, which included ODI series wins with England over South Africa in June and New Zealand in July, which sandwiched a Vitality T20 Tri-Series triumph over both countries. The icing on the cake for Nat was her captaining the Surrey Stars to victory in the Kia Super League in August. On Finals day at Hove, she was named Player of the Match after her unbeaten 71 and 2 for 21 were pivotal in the semi-final win over last year’s champions, Western Storm, by 9 runs. She then led her team to a thumping win in the Final, scoring 40, as Surrey Stars beat Loughborough Lightning by 66 runs.

Nat, whose next challenge with England will be the Women’s World Twenty20 tournament, which takes place in the West Indies in November,wins a special silver medallion and a cheque for £500, which will be presented at the Walter Lawrence Trophy Dinner in The Long Room at Lord’s on November 6.

MCC Universities Award 2018

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. Sam is a great lad, full of humour, but doesn’t always smile! Although he still has a lot to learn, his method of batting is presently bringing him success. His family support him well and MCCU Loughborough think very highly of him and, of course, we are all proud of his achievement. Congratulations, Sam, ‘Enjoy it’!”

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.

Walter Lawrence Schools Award 2018

Felsted’s Good Will

Will Buttleman of Felsted School has won this year’s Walter Lawrence Schools Award for his innings of 140, the highest score by a school batsman against MCC. Despite just failing to overhaul the visitors’ total of 285 for 6, opener Will’s innings, scored off 123 balls and including 17 fours and 4 sixes, pushed the school to within 18 runs of the target on April 26.

Felsted’s Director of Cricket, Jason Gallian, the former England, Essex, Nottinghamshire and Lancashire batsman, expressed his delight at Will winning the award: ‘This is a great achievement. Will captained the First XI this year amassing 937 runs at an average of 68, including two centuries and three fifties. He also took 25 wickets at 27 apiece. Will has been with Felsted school since he was 12 years of age, playing age group cricket for the school and Essex during this time. He has represented the combined Bunbury XI as a 15-year-old and has been involved with Essex’s Elite Player Programme and was named Academy Player of the Year for 2018.’

The 18-year-old Chelmsford-born batsman and wicket-keeper played in 10 matches for Essex 2nd XI this season, recording his first century, 125, for them against Gloucestershire 2nd XI at Bristol in July. Will is currently playing in Sydney for Mosman in grade cricket where he hopes to continue to develop his game.

Will is the eighth winner of the Schools Award and he will receive a special medallion and a Gray-Nicolls cricket bat 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.