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 2017 season by Glamorgan players. Fittingly, this first instalment focuses on some of the remarkable batting achievements of Colin Ingram, the Welsh county’s Player of the Year for 2017.
Colin enjoyed a stellar season in white ball cricket for Glamorgan with the highlight amongst a series of six-laden innings being his remarkable 46-ball century in the NatWest T20 Blast against Sussex at the delightful Arundel Castle ground as batting records tumbled like confetti at a wedding with the left-hander completing the fastest-ever hundred in any format of cricket for the Welsh county.
For the second time in his career, Colin scored consecutive hundreds in List A matches. Having posted back-to-back hundreds in 2015 against Kent and Essex at The SSE SWALEC, 2017 saw Colin make 115 against Hampshire at The Ageas Bowl and then 114 against Kent at Swansea, with his efforts in each game helping to set up victories for his team.
In all, Colin scored 1026 runs in one-day games during 2017 to become only the fourth batsman in the Club’s history, after Steve James, Jacques Rudolph and Matthew Maynard to reach the landmark of 1,000 runs in a season in one-day games. By the end of the summer, Colin had also taken his tally of hundreds in one-day cricket for Glamorgan to 10, with only Matthew Maynard with 16 and Hugh Morris with 13 having scored more for the Welsh county.
Another remarkable statistic was Colin’s tally of 59 sixes in white-ball cricket, plus a further 5 in first-class games. No Glamorgan batsman had ever scored so many sixes in one-day matches during a season, and his achievements in 2017 can be set alongside the achievements of Viv Richards who struck 40 sixes for the Welsh county in first-class games during 1990, plus 24 in one-day games.
Further details about Colin’s outstanding season will appear in the 2018 Glamorgan Yearbook, which is due to be published next March. To place an order at the special advanced price of £17 (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 £18 (plus £1.99 postage).