Cricketers mark magical milestones at Midhurst

Several seasons ago, club president Sean Kearney passed Frank Ede’s record of 1,339 wickets.

Kearney played his first game for Midhurst in 1981 and 40 seasons later the club presented him with a commemorative ball. He has set a record that will be difficult to surpass and he is still going with 1,549 wickets. He was a tearaway bowler in his younger days but has had to concentrate on swing and seam more as he gets older.

The only other person to take more than 1,000 wickets for Midhurst is David West and he was present on Saturday. West was renowned more as a slow left-arm bowler than as a batsman but he recalled his 42-year career highlight was scoring a century and taking a hat-trick in the same match.

The focus moved to Simon Lush, who earlier this season surpassed West’s run scoring. He now has 11,934 runs for the club.

Although he made his debut for the club in 1980, he did not start playing regularly for Midhurst until 1996. He has been a prolific scorer with 16 centuries and now boasts an average of 45.72.

Chairman Simon Flint paid a final tribute to Kearney, who is also the club’s groundsman. The ground, with the recent rain and despite lockdown, is in great condition.