Read All About It!

With batsmen of the dominant teams in the recent World Cup throwing off the shackles and regularly piling up totals of 300 plus, hopes are high that the pattern continues and we can look forward to some sizzling hundreds in the Walter Lawrence Trophy competition this Summer.

The hot April weather has certainly warmed up the English season’s batsmen, and Nottinghamshire skipper Chris Read has laid down a marker with a 76-ball hundred in the LV= County Championship. Coming in at no.8, the 36-year-old wicket-keeper rattled up 14 fours and 2 sixes in his century in the Division 1 match against Middlesex at Lord’s on April 14. On the same day, Northants’ all-rounder, David Willey, ran Read’s effort close with a 79-ball hundred against Gloucestershire, which included 7 fours and 6 sixes.

Read, who made his first-class debut in 1997/8, has represented England in 15 Tests, 36 One-Day Internationals and 1 T20 and has scored over 20,000 runs in all formats of the game.

Now in its 81st 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, Twenty20 Internationals and Test Matches in England.

Champagne Charlie

The University batsmen have also been producing hundreds in their games against county opposition, with Charlie MacDonell of Durham MCCU leading the field in the MCC Universities Award with 136 against Warwickshire at Edgbaston on April 14. The 20-year-old, Basingstoke-born, opener, who hit 18 fours in his innings from 239 balls, has also represented Buckinghamshire and Northants 2nd XI.

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 County Championship, the ECB Women’s County T20 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.