Ackers Away

Leicestershire’s HD Ackerman leads the challenge for this season’s Walter Lawrence Trophy after scoring a 76-ball hundred against Ireland in the Friends Provident Trophy match at Grace Road, Leicester, on May 4. Opening the innings the 36-year-old South African, who has played in four Tests for his country, hit 13 fours and one six in his century and carried his bat for an unbeaten 118 in the seven-wicket victory.

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.