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Craig registers first century for England

Craig Kieswetter (Orchards 2006) helped England to complete a whitewash in their One Day series against Bangladseh by scoring his first century in a full international, on Friday 5th March. Craig's 107 in 123 balls follows a rapid 143 in his first full representative match for England, within a week of his qualification to play for his new country, in a 50 over game versus Bangladesh on 23rd February.

Craig is pictured, right, in the First XI of 2006, seated, far left, just in front of Master i/c Cricket, Richard Ellison, who confirms that there are six players in this photo currently playing first class cricket or engaged with county clubs. The young West Indian in the back row Kieran Powell has also played for the West Indies at international level.

OMs Playing First Class Cricket in 2009

On 7th June there was a triple Millfield event in Somerset’s match against Lancashire when Luke Sutton (1988-95; Edgarley and Holmcroft), Lancashire’s wicket keeper, was caught Kieswetter bowled Arul Suppiah (1996-2001; Millfield) for 20 runs. A candidate for a Guiness Book of Sporting Records? By the way, in Somerset’s first innings’ reply, Craig scored 45 – but was then caught at the wicket by Luke!

At the end of July, Arul Suppiah made his mark. Opening the batting with Marcus Trescothick, at Taunton in the County Championship match against Nottinghamshire, he scored his maiden century. In fact, he scored 151, reaching 150 with 20 fours and going to his century with a straight six. He and Trescothick scored 229 in their opening partnership.

...and Qualified Success for Somerset in the Twenty20 Cup

On 15th August, at Edgbaston, Somerset played Sussex in the final of this competition, with 4 OMs playing for Somerset, James Hildreth, Craig Kieswetter, Arul Suppiah and Max Waller (Edgarley and Shapwick; 1995-2006), and Rory Hamilton-Brown (Kingweston; 2001-2005), for Sussex, five in total. Rory (who, later in the season, scored 171 not out against Yorkshire was lbw to Max and James was caught by Rory, in a match which Sussex won not out against Yorkshire) by 63 runs. (However, both teams qualified for the Champions League Twenty20, for winning teams in the same event in 7 different countries, and played in India in October). Three days later, both teams met again, at Taunton, in a Pro40 League match, Somerset winning handsomely to go top of the League. On this occasion, James was caught off the bowling of Rory, who was lbw to Arul……and a third consecutive match against Sussex this time in the County Championship, saw Arul score 133 and Craig 135 not out. Well played Millfield!

Career Best Bowling for Dean

 In the County Championships in September, Dean Cosker (1991-1996; Millfield), Glamorgan’s slow left-armer, took his maiden 10-wicket haul (6-91 and 5-35) against Essex, a notable milestone.

Dean has now taken over 600 wickets for the club. His Glamorgan career has spanned over 15 years, he has represented the England A Team on two overseas tours to the sub continent and Africa and has won a Championship medal, with 2 one-day titles also to his name. In 2010 Dean has his benefit year for Glamorgan, the opening function taking place at Lord's in the Long Room on the 5th February, which was the eve of England v Wales, the opening match of the Six Nations competition.

Budgie Hangs Up His Umpiring Boots

Graham Burgess (1959-61; Day) was quite an all-rounder at Millfield, playing for the first XI at cricket, second row in the first XV rugby side, playing football to Western League standard as a winger, a junior table-tennis champion and a pretty good hockey player. He played cricket for Somerset between 1966 and 1979, playing in 252 first class matches, scoring 7,129 runs, including two centuries, and taking 474 wickets at 28.57 each. He also had impressive figures in one-day cricket, scoring 2,204 runs at 20.40 and taking 172 wickets at 24.62. After leaving Somerset he played Minor County Cricket for both Wiltshire and Cambridgeshire before joining the umpires list in 1991. He became a high profile umpire, adjudicating in numerous test matches and made his last stand in September 2008 in the match between Somerset and Durham.

One OM Takes Over From Another at Hampshire

In July 2008, Paul Terry (1972-77; Keinton), Team Manager of Hampshire CCC, left the club. He had played cricket for them for many years and had also opened the batting for England in the early 1980s. His successor, appointed for the 2009 season, was Giles White (1985-90; Keen’s Elm) who played for the County from 1991 to 2002, scoring more than 6,000 first-class runs and including nine centuries.