With the night’s drawing in and the leaves falling from the trees, this is the first of a series of weekly features during the Autumn and early Winter looking back on some of the highpoints and personal milestones achieved during the 2016 season by Glamorgan players. Fittingly, the first instalment focuses on some of the achievements by Timm van der Gugten, the Welsh county’s Player of the Year for 2016.
Timm ended the season with 82 wickets to his name in all formats, including 56 in first-class cricket to follow in the footsteps of several other international seam bowlers, including Waqar Younis (1997), Ottis Gibson (1994), Michael Kasprowicz (2002) and Michael Hogan (2013) by claiming over 50 scalps in a debut season with Glamorgan.
Overall, only six bowlers claimed more wickets than Timm in Division Two of the Specsavers County Championship, and with five “five-fors” to his name, the Dutchman equalled the wicket-taking efforts of Graham Napier, the two Leach’s – Joe and Jack – plus Steve Magoffin as being amongst the most penetrative bowlers in first-class cricket during 2016.
In white ball cricket, Timm claimed 26 wickets at a cost of just 22 runs apiece, including 19 in the NatWest T20 Blast, with a strike-rate of a wicket every twelve balls. He made an immediate impact with the ball as Glamorgan’s opening game of the all-action competition Timm returned figures of 4/14 - the best ever for the Welsh county on debut in Twenty20 cricket, and bettered only by Graham Wagg’s 5/14 at Worcester in 2013 and Ryan Watkins’ 5/16 against Gloucestershire at the SWALEC Stadium in 2009.
Further details about Timm’s outstanding season will appear in the 2017 Glamorgan Yearbook, which is due to be published in March. To place an order at the special advanced price of £16 (plus £1.99 postage), please send an email to museum@glamorgancricket.co.uk or write to Yearbook Orders, c/o Archives Department, Glamorgan CCC, The SSE SWALEC, Cardiff, CF11 9XR. Please note that from December 1st, the Yearbook will be available at £17 (plus £1.99 postage).