Sam Northeast, who re-joins Kent for 2026 on a two -year deal, holds a very special place in the records of Glamorgan County Cricket Club having recorded the two highest scores in first-class cricket for the county – a magisterial 410* against Leicestershire at Grace Road in 2022 and an unbeaten 335 in the game with Middlesex at Lord’s in 2024. He also made the Club’s highest score in List A cricket with 169* against Worcestershire at New Road in 2022, besides top-scoring with an unbeaten 63 as Glamorgan beat Somerset at Trent Bridge to win the Metro Bank One-Day Cup in 2024 (writes Andrew Hignell).
But there was far much more to Sam’s contribution to the Welsh county than these mere statistics, as in his numerous 1st XI appearances, he has proved to be a calm and level-headed presence, both at the crease and in the field, captaining the team in red-ball cricket between 2024 and 2025 in an unflustered way, besides employing some subtle and funky fields to constrain and frustrate opposing batters, in addition to encouraging bowlers. As with the bat, Sam has also led by example in the field, completing some sharp catches in the slips, as well as some outstanding catches in the deep in limited-overs games.
Sam had first played for Kent in 2007 before joining Hampshire in 2018, besides having brief spells on loan with Yorkshire and Nottinghamshire in 2021, prior to agreeing a three-year deal with the Welsh county. During this time, Sam has proved to be one of the most consistent England-qualified batters in the county game, and by the time he made his debut in Glamorgan colours, he already had a tally of 10,839 runs to his name in first-class cricket at a very healthy average of 38.30 as well as 25 hundreds, plus a strong record in white-ball cricket with over 5,000 runs in List A and T20 cricket.
Born near Ashford, the right-handed batter grew up in Walmer, near Dover, and enjoyed a prolific record in schoolboy cricket, initially at Wellesley House in Broadstairs, where he more than doubled the record for the most runs scored in a season which had been set by Graham Cowdrey in 1977. After winning a sports scholarship to Harrow, the teenager became one of the youngest to ever play in the traditional Eton-Harrow match at Lord’s, besides being a member of the school’s cricket team which was touring Sri Lanka in 2004 when the dreadful Boxing Day tsunami struck the beautiful island, with Sam and his friends escaping serious injury by clambering up onto the roof of the pavilion at the cricket ground in Galle.
During his time at Harrow, Sam played for England in age-group cricket, besides making his debut in 2005 for Kent 2nd XI against Derbyshire and scoring 96 on his debut. July 2007 saw Sam make his bow in Kent’s 1st XI in their List A match against Sri Lanka prior to making his first-class debut in mid-September against Durham at Canterbury. After leaving Harrow, Sam won a regular place in Kent’s team in both red-ball and white-ball cricket, in addition to posting his maiden first-class hundred in September 2009 with an unbeaten 128 whilst opening the batting against Gloucestershire at Bristol.
Sam was awarded his county cap by Kent in 2012 before two years later being elevated to vice-captain. He duly took over the captaincy in 2016 and enjoyed a run-laden summer, amassing 1,402 runs and striking five centuries. Having switched allegiance to Hampshire, Sam was a key figure in their team which were victorious in the One-Day Cup competition of 2018, before appearing for the England Lions in 2019.
He subsequently enjoyed a stellar first season with Glamorgan in 2022 scoring 1,990 runs in all formats with his monumental 410* at Grace Road in July during a ten hour stay at the crease, plus an all-time Club record partnership of 461 runs for the sixth wicket with Chris Cooke, helping Glamorgan to amass a mammoth total of 795-5 after Leicestershire had themselves posted 584 and, in his eyes as well as those of his colleagues, most importantly laying the foundations for a remarkable success by an innings and 28 runs as the Welsh county recorded one of their greatest victories of recent times as, having giving themselves 65 overs in which to bowl out the despondent home side, they achieved the task in the 60th over with Michael Neser yorking Chris Wright , the Leicestershire tail-ender, before some joyous celebrations by Sam and his colleagues.
Returning to Sam’s personal achievement, his 410* beat Steve James’ record of 309* as the highest individual score for the Welsh county, as well as becoming the third highest score in the history of County Championship cricket and, at the time, the highest of the 21st century. As Peter Jackson, the veteran sports journalist tweeted, “Steve James has stood at the peak of Himalayan achievements by Glamorgan batters for 22 years. Sam Northeast’s mountainous innings has now reached untouched heights. Surely the signing of the season!”
Later in August 2022, Sam also broke the Club’s record for the highest-ever individual score in List A cricket as he made an unbeaten 177 in the Royal London One-Day Cup and shared in a record fourth wicket stand of 245 with fellow centurion Billy Root which laid the foundation for a victory by 19 runs. It had been a must-win game for the Welsh county if they were going to progress to the knockout stages of the competition but, events elsewhere meant that they narrowly missed out with ironically Kent leap-frogging into third place with a remarkable two-wicket victory against Lancashire at Canterbury as Harry Podmore struck the winning runs off the penultimate ball of a gripping contest.
It came as no surprise that after his herculean efforts with bat in hand in 2022, Sam was awarded his Glamorgan cap and won the Club’s Player of the Season Award. He continued to set a series of records over the course of the next couple of seasons, and in 2024 Sam became the first Glamorgan batter to score a double-century at Lord’s as he began the domestic season with another remarkable innings, amassing 335* and sharing in a stand of 299 for the fourth wicket with Colin Ingram as Sam, amidst great excitement in the famous Pavilion and Tavern Bar broke the ground record, previously held by Graham Gooch, who had made 333 in the Test Match against India in 1990, and all despite the Welsh county having had little outdoor practice ahead of their journey to St. John’s Wood.
With his wife and two very young children still living in Canterbury, Sam has opted to return to Kent for 2026, and he leaves Glamorgan with his first-class batting average having now topped the 40-mark after a noteworthy and record-laden four-year association with the Welsh county which few others in the Club’s illustrious history have ever matched.