Robert Croft makes Welsh history by Andrew Hignell

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Player:

RDB Croft

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DateLine: 12th September 2007

 

A piece of Glamorgan cricket history was made today at Northampton at 4.25pm as Robert Croft became the first Welshman to achieve the 'double' of 1,000 first-class wickets and 10,000 first-class runs.

 

The veteran off-spinner reached this personal landmark as he dismissed Niall O’Brien leg before – his third wicket of the innings and like the other two, both adjudged lbw by Jeff Evans.

 

In so doing, he became the ninth player to have represented Glamorgan to have taken 1,000 first-class wickets in all games (including wickets for other teams), thereby following in the footsteps of:

 

Don Shepherd          2218
Jack Mercer           1591
Tom Cartwright        1536
Johnnie Clay          1317
'Butch' White         1143
Robin Hobbs           1099
Ossie Wheatley        1099
Frank Ryan            1013

 

Of these players above, only the late Tom Cartwright had also passed 10,000 first-class runs, with a career tally of 13,710 runs and 1,536 wickets during his career between 1952 and 1977. The major difference though between Tom and Robert is that the bulk of wickets in Robert’s career (just like those of Don Shepherd and Johnnie Clay) have come just for Glamorgan, whereas Tom also played for Warwickshire and Somerset before finishing his playing career in Wales.

 

You can see a full breakdown of Robert’s career bowling record, and the details of the wickets which he has taken for Glamorgan, as well as for other teams by visiting http://cricketarchive.com/Glamorgan/Players/2/2332/f_Bowling_by_Team.html