Congratulations to Spencer’s first team captain Gus Grant who took his 200th 1st XI league wicket on Saturday, becoming the first Spencer player to achieve the feat since Mark Kenlock in the 1990s and part of over 400 in total for the club. A truly local lad - he attended Beatrix Potter school on the corner of our grounds, Gus has progressed all the way through the ranks at Spencer. Our insider reports:

1st XI skipper Gus Grant with our U7’s and their new kit on Sunday

Gus joined Spencer as a junior in the early 2000s, with his early years as a cricketer spent as a willing, but ultimately unsuccessful batter. Then, after a doomed attempt at reinventing himself as the world’s tallest wicket-keeper, he was forced to turn to everyone’s last resort in cricket: offspin.

Gus’s development as a spinner came in unusual circumstances. As a 14-year-old, he tore his hip flexor and was rendered pretty much immobile for a number of months. Restricted to the garden, Gus spent the time spinning the ball back and forth with his dad Tony. This, combined with his adolescent passion for growing, meant he came back the following season as someone who was very tall, and could turn the ball a long way.

The result was a teenager who flew through the lower XIs. As a 15 year old, he started the 2011 season in the 4s and finished in the 2s, before he made his 1s debut in the cup the following year.

In this time, Gus also quit school cricket in order to focus on playing and learning the men’s game, and had one of his first real tastes of victory under the stewardship of another Spencer legend, Shakir Farooqi, for whom our 3XI player of the season award is named.

“My first memory of Gus is as a prodigious 15 year old making a man of the match performance in a fiery match against Beddington in the 3s. He put on close to 50 with Peter Tilley for the tenth wicket and then took the final two wickets of the game in an eight run win. He was always going to be a FFE (Future First Eleven). I know this is about his bowling but I still think he can bat. Congrats on 200 Gussie.”

Despite Shak’s steadfast belief in Gus’s batting ability, from 87 1XI innings, his batting average stands at a proud and resilient 8.57, with just the 17 ducks.

But his outstanding bowling record more than makes up for it. 200 wickets at a shade over 20 with his finest year in a Spencer shirt so far being 2018 where he took 47 wickets at an average of 15.62, a year that also happened to be his first as captain. The season featured four six-wicket hauls including his career best figures for the 1s of 7-26. His all-time best figures for Spencer came in 2015 for the 2XI, when he took 8-15 against Epsom.

An early adopter and the face of Spencer’s recent but proud tradition of offspinners bowling around the wicket, Gus has been an ever present in the 1s for close to a decade and a clubman for close to two. Congratulations on 200, and we hope there are still many more to come.

200 up for 1st XI skipper