Billy’s Ville cup ton followed by first class debut century
Former Hampshire prospect Billy Mead followed up a cup hundred against Waterlooville by making a century on his first class debut.
After starting out in the Hampshire League with Longparish, the 23-yearold wicket-keeper/batsman played for Hampshire Academy and hometown club St Cross in the Southern Premier League.
At the beginning of this month, he opened the batting for Berkshire club Datchet against Waterlooville in the National Cup.
There, he struck 117 off 94 balls, sharing an opening stand of 210 with skipper Joe Barrett (129 not out) as the hosts rattled up 302-3 off 40 overs at The Wally Gage Memorial Ground. Ville were all out for 180 in reply.
A few days later, on the back of two outings for Kent 2nds, Mead was handed his first class debut by Kent against the Sri Lankan Cricket Development XI at Canterbury.
Batting at No 7, he had to wait for his chance - Darren Stevens (168) and South African George Linde (103) sharing a 264-run stand for the fifth wicket.
When he got his chance, though, Mead took it - hitting an unbeaten 106 off 188 balls with eight fours and a six to become the 14th Kent player in history to score a century on their first class debut for the county.
Desperate to forge a career in the pro game, Mead has turned out for a handful of county 2nd XIs in recent years - Hampshire, Somerset, Surrey and Warwickshire prior to his Kent debut this year.
*Hampshire have two bowlers in the top five leading wicket-takers after five rounds of LV= County Championship action.
Overseas ace Mohammad Abbas is joint second in the log with 22 wickets at 17.81 nine of those coming in the recent win against Gloucestershire that left Hampshire second in the Division 1 table behind Surrey.
Keith Barker is joint third in the list with 21 victims at 18.85, including two fivewicket hauls - 6-53 against Kent at Canterbury and 5-67 against Lancashire.
Top of the log so far are Durham’s Matty Potts and Lancashire’s Pakistan international Hasan Ali with 24 wickets. The latter has only played four games.