It’s been quite a weekend for Alex Horton, Glamorgan’s teenage wicket-keeper who, because of a calf injury to Chris Cooke, made his 1st XI debut. His first appearance came on Saturday evening at Bristol in the Vitality Blast T20 contest against Gloucestershire, but because of rain the youngster never got a chance to take to the field as the match, designated as a ‘No Result’ was called off after the toss had taken place, and the teams had been declared with rain then preventing a start to the contest, ironically just as the umpires were walking out onto the ground.
As a result, Alex - at 18 years and 163 days old - became the third youngest player to be chosen for Glamorgan in T20 cricket with the only two younger players having been James Harris who played aged 18 years and 39 days against Gloucestershire at the same ground during 2008 and Tom Maynard who played aged 18 years and 92 days against Warwickshire at Edgbaston during 2007.
Fortunately, the weather was kinder on Sunday as Alex made it onto the field in the Welsh county’s T20 game against Sussex at Sophia Gardens and he duly claimed his first victim by stumping Harrison Ward off a wide ball from Andrew Salter.
As the list below shows, Alex became the tenth player since Glamorgan became first-class in 1921 whose first dismissal was a stumping. The most recent to achieve the feat was John Hopkins, who stood in for regular gloveman Eifion Jones in the Sunday League match against Northamptonshire at Sophia Gardens in 1970 and stumped Jim Watts from the bowling of Don Shepherd. The most recent time it happened in a Championship match was at Kettering during 1947 when Jack Rippon stumped William Barron of Northamptonshire off the bowling of Len Muncer. The Swansea-based understudy to Haydn Davies only appeared in three first-class games for the Welsh county during 1947 and 1948 with all three of his dismissals for the Club being stumpings. However, Alex Horton has a unique place in the Club’s annals as, thanks to the playing regulations for white-ball cricket, he was the first-ever to achieve a stumping from a ball which was also adjudged as a wide by the umpire.
Leslie Jenkins v Lancashire at Cardiff Arms Park, 1921 (CC)
Mervyn Hill v Gloucestershire at Cheltenham Victoria, 1923 (CC)
Dennis Sullivan v Combined Oxford and Cambridge Univs at Cardiff Arms Park, 1922 (F)
Trevil Morgan v Sussex at Eastbourne, 1928 (CC)
Trevor Every v Sussex at Horsham, 1929 (CC)
Viv Jenkins v Middlesex at Swansea, 1931 (CC)
Jack Rippon v Northamptonshire at Kettering, 1947 (CC)
David Evans v Combined Services at Cardiff Arms Park, 1956 (F)
John Hopkins v Northamptonshire at Sophia Gardens, Cardiff, 1970 (SL)
Alex Horton v Sussex at Sophia Gardens, Cardiff, 2022 (T20)
(compiled by Andrew Hignell)