A warm welcome to the revamped Walter Lawrence Trophy website, featuring the 90-year-old award for the fastest century of the season, together with the Walter Lawrence Women’s Award and the Walter Lawrence Schools Award.

As this season enters the final furlong, the leader in the quest for the Trophy is Ravi Bopara with a 45-ball hundred scored for the Northamptonshire Steelbacks against Surrey in a Vitality Blast quarter-final at The Oval on September 3. In the thrilling rain-shortened game, reduced to 14 overs apiece, the Steelbacks were put in to bat and slumped to 2 for 1 run in the first over. Bopara, however, marshalled the innings with a sensational display of powerful batting, setting up a total of 154 for 4. He brought up his 45-ball hundred with his 12^th four, having already despatched 5 sixes and finished on 105 not out. Surrey’s chase was in vain, falling 7 runs short.

‘It was an amazing win’, Bopara told Sky Sports as he accepted his player-of-the-match award. ‘We knew there was going to be a bit of rain about, and we knew that this pitch might nibble at the start, but our philosophy was ‘just keep going’ and it will come off. And today it did. I don’t know if I’m getting better, but I was thinking about it all night. I didn’t have that fire in my belly today, and that’s when I prefer it, when I feel a bit dead. That’s when I feel like I’m going to perform my best. It doesn’t always work, but when it does it’s good.’

Ironically, in a hotly contested chase for the leadership of the Trophy, the 40-year-old all-rounder pipped Surrey’s Dan Lawrence who was the previous leader with a 46-baller.

Ravi, born in Forest Gate, London, is a hugely experienced cricketer in all formats of the game, representing England in 13 Tests, 130 One-Day Internationals and 38 T20 Internationals. He has scored 12,821 first-class  runs at an average of 40.44. As well as Northamptonshire,  he has played for Essex, Sussex and Gloucestershire, while his limited-over prowess has seen him representing over 20 teams around the globe.

The Walter Lawrence Trophy, now in its 91^st 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. Along with the Trophy, the winner will receive £2,500 plus a special medallion at the Walter Lawrence Trophy Presentation Dinner in the Long Room at Lord’s on November 5.

Meanwhile in the Walter Lawrence Women’s Award, 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, Lauren Winfield-Hill has stormed her way into pole position with a massive innings of 194.  Captaining Yorkshire Women, she snatched the lead from another Yorkshie team-mate, Ami Campbell, who had led the pursuit since the beginning of May with an unbeaten 165.

In the Metro Bank One-Day Cup, League 2 match at Canterbury against Kent on August 30, Yorkshire Women were put in to bat  and Winfield-Hill, opening the innings, hammered the Kent attack, propelling her team to a total of 404 for 5. Lauren’s score of 194 came off 126 balls and included 34 fours and a six. Kent’s reply crumpled to a total of 125 all out as Yorkshire Women cruised to victory by 279 runs.

The York-born, 35 year-old wicket-keeper/batter, is a highly experienced cricketer, who has enjoyed particular success in the short-form game. She has played in 5 Tests, 55 one-Day Internationals and 44 T20 Internationals for England. In addition to Yorkshire, Lauren has played for The Oval Invincibles, The Northern Superchargers, The Diamonds, Amazons, Perth Scorchers, Melbourne Stars, Guyana Amazon Warriors, Brisbane Heat and Super Women. Playing for the Northern Diamonds, she was named as Player of the Year in the 2022 Rachael Heyhoe Flint Trophy as the tournament’s leading run-scorer with 470 runs at an average of 78.30, and again the leading run-scorer in the  2023 Rachael Heyhoe Flint Trophy, with 663 runs at an average of 51.00.

The winner of the Walter Lawrence Women’s Award will receive £2,500 plus a special medallion at the Walter Lawrence Trophy Presentation Dinner in the Long Room at Lord’s on November 5.