OPENER’S EXPLOSIVE KNOCK INCLUDES 41 SIXES

Littlebourne opener Byron Gould thinks his recordbreaking innings of 361 from just 132 balls is worthy of more respect than it has received.

Bourne sit in the lower reaches of Kent Village League, Division 1 but toppled leaders Egerton on Sunday with Gould’s explosive knock – which featured 41 sixes – helping them post 442-7 from just 40 overs.

Gould said: “It started off as just another day, really. We have been struggling to get our best team out on a Sunday this season, people have other commitments and that’s fair enough.

“We had a few lads who haven’t played too much and some youngsters and I knew from the start that we’d probably need me or (younger brother Sully) to get runs to give us a chance.”

Gould, whose nickname is Buzz, took 12 off the first over of the match, claiming ‘that is sensible for me’ but was dropped off the first ball of the next over.

He said: “I mis-hit one and it dropped between two fielders at deep point – neither of them could decide who was going to take it. If I’d holed out then it might have been a different story.”

Gould made the hosts pay with an onslaught of a further 40 sixes and 17 fours in a 132-ball knock which saw him post 361. He said: “Everything seemed to go smoothly after that drop.

“Egerton is not the largest of places but the boundaries are not the smallest, either – they were still 40 or 50 yards. You had to hit them hard. The last time we played there two years ago I made 80-odd.”

He added: “I’ve had some big scores in the past but nothing like this – this was something special.

“I wanted to do the best for the team but I also wanted to get the club record score back from my brother. Last year I scored 228 against Folkestone and then an hour later he scored 232 to take it off me. This one should last a bit longer hopefully.

“It’s just a shame I couldn’t get to 400. I was caught with seven balls of the innings left. If I’d been there to the end, I could have done it.”

There has been a mixed reaction to Gould’s knock, with the player himself admitting: “The social media reaction has been interesting.

“The people who think I was being disrespectful, or should have retired, or shouldn’t have been playing at all have not taken into account the situation we were in or don’t understand the game.

“For me, records are there to be broken. I hadn’t even scored a hundred on a Sunday this season – I was averaging 40-odd which is not too bad.

“I don’t care what a few keyboard warriors think. The way I see it it’s all good attention for the game of cricket.

“A lof of guys I respect in the game have told me ‘well done.’ We were not playing aganst a team of children, they had a lot of adults and high-level players.

“Nobody complained to me during the game about it, if they had done maybe I would have thought about retiring.

“They were shaking my hand and saying well done and I think some of their guys enjoyed watching it.”

As for being too good for the standard, Gould added: “You can’t play a higher standard on a Sunday. There are a lot of factors why I choose to play for Littlebourne.

“I get to play with my brothers and dad, I live 100 metres from the ground and it’s £2.50 a pint.

“It’s a great bunch of lads who want to progress through the leagues together.”