News: Corporal leads the charge (November 2007)
With the customary back slapping and hand clapping afforded to the club's top performers at the recent cricket presentation evening over, ymcacricket.com has turned its attention to the only player to score a century for the YMCA in 2007....the mighty Martin Jones....
The popular 6ft 5' Durham based student, known by many of his team-mates as 'Corporal Jones', enjoyed a remarkable purple patch during one weekend in August when he scored, not only a well crafted half century against Failand & Portbury, but a super-sonic maiden ton in a Sunday friendly match in which he put the shell-shocked Hanham side to the sword with his mega-heavy bat.
Speaking from his North East campus Jones said of the achievement: "It was a great feeling to finally get three figures under my belt. The key thing for me now is to transform this into league performances where I know I can achieve more than I managed this season."
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| Oval ground - aerial shot |
The talented all-round cricketer becomes only the 29th senior player in the club's recorded history to reach three figures for the Golden Hill outfit in all forms of senior cricket. However, Jones' cricketing CV doesn't stop there. The first-teamer can boast to being the only current player to have played against professional cricketers including international cricketers such as Mark Butcher and Mark Ramprakash, when, as part of Durham University CC, he travelled to the famous Oval ground to take on a Surrey XI. Although his side predictably lost the match Jones returned with tight bowling figures and managed to get off the mark woth the bat to give himself a first class average of 1.00!
First team captain John Colley was the first to praise Jones for his steady rise in form with the bat over the past few seasons and relishes the day when his friend and team-mate will be available for selection for an entire summer. Colley said of Jones' contribution last season: "Martin knows that an average of just under 15 [batting 1st XI league] last year is easily improved upon. I hope next year he can recapture the beligerant form he demonstrated when he scored his first century on a swelteringly hot day at Hambrook, an innings that will be remembered by all his team-mates."
But it is not just with the bat that Colley will be turning to his old school chum for a winning performance, Jones has proved to be an emerging bowler of some potential as Colley indicates: "Also, hopefully, he will build upon the impressive bowling form he showed at the end of the season, where he proved almost impossible to get away and produced some impressive figures."
