On the first weekend of May, 44 Great Totham players will take to the field hoping for greatness, or at least as little embarrassing moments as possible. Let's have a little gander at who is approaching milestones & may have to get a jug or two in at the Bull to celebrate.
APPEARANCES
There won't be much excitement inside the Top 10, however Kevin Mays will pass 350 apps after his 11th game of the season, and Drew Whiting will pass Paul Barber after 9 games to move up to our 9th most capped player.
Outside of the Top 10 there will be an interesting race to join the 200 Club. Josh Chadwick (185), James Pook (182) and Rob Hewer (181) in contention. Rob's wedding may not see him pass this mark until 2023 however! Our glorious Chairman Richard Dickenson will pass 150 on his 7th game, but expect Sam Bowen (140) or Tom Hawkridge (139) to beat him to the mark! The returning 3rd Team Skipper Tim Logue will also make his 50th Totham appearance after 5 games.
BATTING
If Barry Gooch has been doing his Pilates over winter, he's just 401 runs short of joining the 10,000 run club with Peter Willingale, Barry Mays and Olly Kendall. In truth I suspect he is already there, but until I find that last 3rd team book we won't know for certain!
Again not likely to be much movement in the Top 10 - 5th place Kevin Mays is just 1 run shy of 7500, and 7th place Chris Pearson is 54 runs shy of 6000. Nick Phillips slightly further away from the same mark (193) but will probably get there this year.
Outside of the Top 10, Steve Whiting needs just 5 runs to pass 5000 which he should get in his guaranteed 1 appearance per season. Paul Marks (4726) and Harry Cooper (4711) will be racing him to it though! Liam Jones is 128 runs shy of 4500, and Josh Chadwick 198 shy of 4000.
Tom Hawkridge (2966) should clock up 3000 runs in the first few weeks of the season, while Rob Hewer (2737) and Joe Davis (2600) have good chances of getting there too. Ollie Cheeseman is 65 short of 1000 career runs and will get there if he plays 10 games and scores at his current average!
Danny Kennedy (490), Owen McCausland (420) and Sam Yeates (405) should all pass 500 runs.
BOWLING
With 35 wickets this year Olly Kendall can take his tally to an impressive 1250. Almost 500 wickets ahead of next best Barry Mays. There's only 4 other people in the club who have taken 500 wickets! One of which, Ollie Cheeseman passed David Davies to move into third place last year & will now have his eyes set on 600, just 22 wickets away.
There will finally be a newcomer to a Top 10 - expect Sam Bowen (200) to knock Sam Powell out early season. Sam will then have his eyes set on Jonny Hewer in 9th (210). Jonny has given up the groundskeeping gig at Frinton and will put up a fierce defense of his position. Arguably both are within reach of Howard Hardy King in 8th on 242. Will be interesting to see how that battle turns out.
James Pook (94) will surely pass the 100 mark this year as he now has the Sunday captaincy and can bowl as much as he pleases. Richard Dickenson (91) may be tempted to strap on the bowling boots to creep over the line too. Danny (40) and Ryan (37) Kennedy will be having a race to 50 wickets but otherwise fairly quiet on the bowling milestone front.
All Stats quoted are League and Cup Only. Best of luck to all of our #GTCCFamily in 2022. We wish you the best of successes & a fantastic season!
