CORSHAM batsman Tom Hankins is celebrating after smashing the biggest individual score in the history of the West of England Premier League last weekend.
The 28 year old shattered the previous record with a towering 293 from just 145 balls, 44 runs more than the entire total of vanquished opponents Taunton Deane.
Despite the innings of his life, painter and decorator Hankins, revealed he didn’t have the most settled build-up to Saturday’s game.
“On Friday night I went to a mate’s house and wasn’t back home until about 1am,” said Hankins, who clubbed 29 fours and 18 sixes.
“I wasn’t drinking or anything like that but I got home to my mum having a right go, saying ‘what sort of preparation is this for a cricket game?’ “For the last three or four weeks, I’d told people that I felt like there was a big score coming up for me, but the highest I’d ever got before was 186.
“In the past, I’ve got out every single way you could think of but Saturday was brilliant and everything I tried just seemed to come off.
“Wes Durston (Corsham player-coach playing Twenty20 cricket for Derbyshire) phoned me afterwards and was a bit gutted that I’d beaten his record in the Premier One – I told him that he should put in a good word for me at Derbyshire.’’ Corsham skipper Pete Dennett was full of praise for his record-breaking batsman, whose feat was watched by several family members.
“It was absolutely incredible. He’s one of the most talented cricketers our league and he went from 150 to 250 in something like 32 balls – it was great to watch,’’ he said.
“(Corsham’s) Richard Foley, an ex-Chippenham player, saw Marcus Trescothick (Somerset captain and former England opener) hit a huge score for Keynsham years ago – and he said this was better.”
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