Shropshire’s Roman Walker has emulated former England bowler Sydney Barnes by becoming the first player to take seven wickets or more in an innings in three consecutive Minor Counties or National Counties Championship matches since he did in 1929.
Walker has enjoyed an excellent first season for Shropshire and played another leading role as the county closed their season by beating Dorset at Whitchurch last week.
The former Glamorgan and Leicestershire seamer, who played for Oswestry earlier in his career, took 7-38 in Dorset’s first innings.
That followed on from Walker grabbing 7-41 against Cheshire at Nantwich earlier this month and 8-44 in the win over Wales at Bridgnorth – also both in the first innings – last month.
It means Walker, 26, is the first player in either Minor Counties – or National Counties cricket as it was rebranded in 2020 – to achieve the outstanding milestone since the legendary Barnes 97 years ago.
Smethwick-born Barnes, who claimed 189 wickets in 27 Test matches for England between 1901 and 1914, is widely regarded as one of the greatest bowlers of all time.
While he did play first-class cricket for Warwickshire and Lancashire, he spent much of his career, alongside his England appearances, playing Minor Counties cricket for Staffordshire, as well as league cricket.
A superb achievement
Shropshire captain Charlie Home, paying tribute to Walker’s remarkable achievement, said: “If you look at the stats of Sydney Barnes, it’s very impressive. He had a bowling average of eight for Staffordshire over many years. Kevin O’Connell, our scorer, printed off his stats and he would regularly take eight or nine wickets in an innings.
“For Roman to now match an absolute great of the game, and for this not to have occurred for almost 100 years, is a superb achievement.
“Roman suffered from a couple of injuries earlier in the season and probably didn’t play as much white-ball cricket as he would have liked, but he has really been our spearhead in red-ball cricket and a big part of the success we’ve had.
“I know he found out about the potential of equalling the achievement of Sydney Barnes of taking at least seven wickets in an innings in three consecutive Championship games at the start of the match at Whitchurch.
“There was no holding him back then and he bowled beautifully, just like he had in the last two games against Wales and Cheshire. I’m so pleased for Roman and it’s something that anyone will do well to replicate for some time.
“It’s testament to Roman as in our three-day matches this season he has just kept bowling and bowling. He’s done everything he can to help us win the two Championship games that we have.”
There is a Shropshire connection with Barnes, too, as he spent the 1938 season playing his club cricket in the county for Bridgnorth, where, at the age of 65, he took an incredible 126 wickets during the season at an average of 6.94.
Now, 97 years on, Walker ironically embarked on his own record-equalling run at Bridgnorth, the Cricket Meadow ground where Barnes previously excelled.
Pictured: Roman Walker has enjoyed an excellent first season playing National Counties cricket for Shropshire.