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  • 21 Aug, 2019

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Walter Lawrence Trophy

The Walter Lawrence Trophy is an annual award made to the player who has scored the fastest century in English domestic county cricket that season, in terms of balls received (not counting wides). Hundreds are considered by a panel of experts which, as of 2020, comprise Michael Atherton, David Gower, Simon Hughes and John Barclay. Those which are adjudged to have been made against declaration bowling are not eligible for the award, although this restriction was not always observed in former years. As of 2020, the recipient of the Walter Lawrence Trophy is also presented with a cheque for £2,500.

The trophy was instituted in 1934 by Sir Walter Lawrence, a builder and cricket enthusiast from Hertfordshire, the first recipient being Frank Woolley. At this stage in its history, the criterion was the time taken to score a hundred rather than the number of balls faced. The award was made every season up to and including 1939 when Lawrence died. When first class cricket resumed in 1945 after the Second World War, Lawrence's son Guy left the presentation of the Trophy in abeyance. It was finally re-instated by Guy's son-in-law, Brian Thornton for the 1966 season. The recipient was then the player who had scored the fastest England Test century in terms of balls faced, at home or away, in the calendar year. The 1970 award was made to Geoffrey Boycott for "the most meritorious innings of the England v The Rest of the World series", but in 1971 the original version of the award was restored. Since 1985, the trophy has been decided in terms of balls faced rather than minutes spent at the crease.

University games were eligible for the trophy until 1995 and from 2001 to 2003. Until 2007, only first-class centuries could qualify for the award, but eligibility was widened in 2008 to include limited overs cricket. Graham Napier became the first man to win the trophy under these new conditions by scoring a 44-ball hundred in a Twenty20 match. Matches involving individual university sides (i.e. University Centre of Cricketing Excellence matches and the Varsity Match) are excluded, although games involving the combined British Universities team are eligible. Three other variants of the Walter Lawrence Trophy are also awarded annually: Walter Lawrence Women's Award, Walter Lawrence MCC Universities Award and Walter Lawrence Schools Award.

Four batsmen have won the main award on more than one occasion, twice each: Ian Botham, Graham Lloyd, Leslie Ames and Viv Richards. Kent have the most winners (8) followed by Somerset (6). The winner of the main award for the 2021 English cricket season is England batter Liam Livingstone, who struck 100 in 42 balls against Pakistan in the first T20 international match.

Winners

Frank Woolley standing with his bat
Frank Woolley was the inaugural winner of the trophy in 1934.
Tom Graveney playing a stroke
Tom Graveney won the award in 1968.
Viv Richards in a white t-shirt and beige shirt
West Indian Viv Richards is one of four players to have won the trophy on two occasions.
Chris Cairns in white cricket shirt
New Zealand batsman Chris Cairns won the award in 1995.
Damien Martyn playing a stroke
Australian Damien Martyn won the trophy in 2003.
Tom Kohler-Cadmore raising his bat in the air
Tom Kohler-Cadmore won the trophy in 2016.
Winners of the Walter Lawrence Trophy
Season Player Time taken For Against Venue Notes
1934 Frank Woolley 63 minutes Kent Northamptonshire Dover
1935 Harold Gimblett 63 minutes Somerset Essex Frome Gimblett's first innings in first-class cricket
1936 Leslie Ames 68 minutes England XI India Folkestone not a Test match
1937 Joe Hardstaff Jr 51 minutes Nottinghamshire Kent Canterbury
1938 Hugh Bartlett 57 minutes Sussex Australians Hove after scoring 4 in the first 14 minutes
1939 Leslie Ames 67 minutes Kent Surrey The Oval
1940 to 1944: no first-class cricket in England
1945 to 1965: Trophy not awarded
Calendar year Balls faced
1966 Ken Barrington 153 balls England Australia Melbourne
1967 Basil D'Oliveira 183 balls England India Leeds
1968 Tom Graveney 174 balls England West Indies Port-of-Spain
1969 Colin Milburn 163 balls England Pakistan Karachi
1970 Geoffrey Boycott 222 balls England Rest of the World The Oval "most meritorious" innings of the series
Season Time taken
1971 Brian Davison 63 minutes Leicestershire Northamptonshire Leicester
1972 Majid Khan 70 minutes Glamorgan Warwickshire Birmingham
1973 Asif Iqbal 72 minutes Kent MCC Canterbury
1974 Garry Sobers 83 minutes Nottinghamshire Derbyshire Ilkeston
1975 Robin Hobbs 44 minutes Essex Australians Chelmsford
1976 Alan Knott 70 minutes Kent Sussex Canterbury
1977 Chris Old 37 minutes Yorkshire Warwickshire Birmingham against "declaration bowling"
1978 Gordon Greenidge 82 minutes Hampshire Glamorgan Southampton
1979 Mike Procter 57 minutes Gloucestershire Northamptonshire Bristol
1980 Viv Richards 66 minutes West Indies Glamorgan Swansea
1981 Sylvester Clarke 62 minutes Surrey Glamorgan Swansea batting at number nine
1982 Ian Botham 52 minutes Somerset Warwickshire Taunton
1983 Steve O'Shaughnessy 35 minutes Lancashire Leicestershire Manchester against "declaration bowling"
1984 Mike Gatting 79 minutes Middlesex Kent Lord's
Balls faced
1985 Ian Botham 50 balls Somerset Warwickshire Birmingham
1986 Viv Richards 48 balls Somerset Glamorgan Taunton
1987 Roland Butcher 73 balls Middlesex Sussex Hove
1988 Graeme Hick 79 balls Worcestershire Surrey The Oval
1989 Darren Bicknell 69 balls Surrey Essex The Oval
1990 Tom Moody 36 balls Warwickshire Glamorgan Swansea against "declaration bowling"
1991 Ian Austin 61 balls Lancashire Yorkshire Scarborough
1992 Martin Speight 62 balls Sussex Lancashire Hove
1993 Paul Johnson 73 balls Nottinghamshire Glamorgan Swansea
Matthew Maynard 73 balls Glamorgan Australians Neath
1994 Ken Rutherford 71 balls New Zealanders Glamorgan Swansea
1995 Chris Cairns 65 balls Nottinghamshire Cambridge U Fenner's
1996 Graham Lloyd 70 balls Lancashire Essex Chelmsford
1997 Graham Lloyd 73 balls Lancashire Leicestershire Leicester
1998 Ali Brown 72 balls Surrey Northamptonshire The Oval award shared
Carl Hooper Kent Worcestershire Canterbury
1999 Andrew Flintoff 61 balls Lancashire Gloucestershire Bristol before lunch on the first day
2000 Darren Lehmann 89 balls Yorkshire Kent Canterbury
2001 Ian Harvey 61 balls Gloucestershire Derbyshire Bristol
2002 Matthew Fleming 66 balls Kent Sri Lankans Canterbury
2003 Damien Martyn 65 balls Yorkshire Gloucestershire Leeds on the last day of the season
2004 Richard Johnson 63 balls Somerset Durham Chester-le-Street at number ten
2005 Ian Blackwell 67 balls Somerset Derbyshire Taunton on the last day of the season
2006 Mark Ealham 45 balls Nottinghamshire MCC Lord's
2007 Marcus North 73 balls Gloucestershire Leicestershire Bristol
2008 Graham Napier 44 balls Essex Sussex Chelmsford
2009 Vikram Solanki 47 balls Worcestershire Glamorgan Worcester
2010 Adam Gilchrist 47 balls Middlesex Kent Canterbury
2011 Kevin O'Brien 44 balls Gloucestershire Middlesex Uxbridge
2012 Scott Styris 37 balls Sussex Gloucestershire Hove 2012 Friends Life t20 Quarter-finals
2013 Darren Stevens 44 balls Kent Sussex Canterbury
2014 Daniel Christian 46 balls Middlesex Kent Canterbury award shared
Sam Billings Kent Somerset Taunton
2015 David Willey 40 balls Northamptonshire Sussex Hove
2016 Tom Kohler-Cadmore 43 balls Worcestershire Durham Worcester
2017 Shahid Afridi 43 balls Hampshire Derbyshire Derby
2018 Martin Guptill 35 balls Worcestershire Northamptonshire Northampton
2019 Cameron Delport 38 balls Essex Surrey Chelmsford
2020 Joe Clarke 44 balls Nottinghamshire Durham Chester-le-Street
2021 Liam Livingstone 42 balls England Pakistan Nottingham

References

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