1, Most Runs and Batting Averages

a) Somerset captain Terryn Fray continues to lead all active players with the bat in both Most Runs scored (683) and Leading Batting Average (45.53).

b) In the Most Runs category, Fray is now into the top 20 at fifteenth place with 683 runs and is just five runs behind the Western Stars legend Arnold Manders, who retired from the Classic with 688 runs at an average of 27.52.

c) Fray scored 99 runs in the Classic last year. He collected 51 in the first inning and 48 in the second.

d) On the back of his 179 runs in the Classic last year, Somerset’s Kamau Leverock entered the Leading Batting Averages in ninth position with an average of 35.10. This is a massive jump from the 21.5 he was averaging at the start of play in 2024. His form last year saw him score more than half of all the runs he scored in the Classic — in those two innings. After 12 innings, Leverock has scored 351 runs in Cup Match.

e) Leverock also made major gains in the Somerset All-Time Batting category, moving from 78th to 32nd position. He along with Terryn Fray, Dion Stovell and Malachi Jones are four active players in the top 30 of All-Time Runs Scored for Somerset in the history of the Classic.

f) Somerset have three active early/middle-order batters in the Most Runs and Leading Batting Averages, including Terryn Fray (683 runs, avg 45.53), Tre Manders, (446 runs, avg 31.86) and Dion Stovell (497 runs, avg 31.06). St George’s have one — Macai Simmons — in the top 50 of each of these two categories. Simmons has accumulated 406 runs and averages 27.07.

g) The 80 runs scored by Macai Simmons last year in the second innings for St George’s contributed to a seventh-wicket partnership of 85 with an injured Oronde Bascome. That effort by Simmons, the St George’s vice-captain, nudged his batting average up from 24.77 to 27.07, and he enters the top 50 of the Most Runs category at 44th position with 406 runs. Note that only 45 batters have scored more than 400 runs in the history of Cup Match.

2, Batting Partnerships

a) A record was established last year when Somerset captain and veteran opener Terryn Fray partnered with Kamau Leverock to post the highest first-wicket partnership of 169.

b) This surpasses the 153 that Fray put on with Chris Douglas 2018.

c) Terryn Fray has been involved in four century stands in Cup Match.

i, In 2014 he put on 151 with Tre Manders for the second wicket.

ii, In the 2018, Fray and Chris Douglas put on 153 runs for the first wicket.

iii, Fray partnered with Chris Douglas again in 2022 to produce an opening stand of 108.

iv,The effort last year with Leverock of 169 runs.

d, St George’s last opening partnership of 100 or more runs was in 1995, when former captain Wendell Smith and Dexter Smith, now Editor of The Royal Gazette, put on exactly 100 in the first inning.

3, Most Wickets

a) Dion Stovell’s MVP bowling performance in last year’s Classic sees him climb up the ladder of Most Wickets in Cup Match. Stovell moved from 24th position to thirteenth on the strength of his match haul of 12 for 89. He now has 40 wickets in the Classic at an average of 14.20.

b) Last year, Somerset’s Derrick Brangman added five more wickets to his Cup Match haul. He, like Stovell, has also bagged 40 wickets in the Classic. He averages 18.68 per wicket.

c) Malachi Jones bowled only six overs in the match last year. He did not add to his tally of 55 wickets. He continues to lead all active players in the Most Wickets category.

d) Somerset have four active bowlers — Malachi Jones (55), Derrick Brangman (40), Dion Stovell (40) and Kamau Leverock (21) — included in the leading wicket-taking category. They have a cumulative Cup Match haul of 156 wickets. St George’s have no active players in this Most Wickets category where there is a minimum of 20 wickets required.

e) St George’s bowler George O’Brien retired from the Classic in 2022 with 42 wickets at an impressive average of 18.48.

f) The 7 for 27 that Dion Stovell recorded in last year’s Classic is the first time since 2014 that a bowler has taken seven or more wickets in an inning. The previous three instances of a bowler accomplishing this were when:

1, George O’Brien took 8 for 76 in 2014

2, Hasan Durham took 7 for 71 in 1996.

3, Clarence Parfitt took 7 for 18 in 1978

4, Century Club

a) Kamau Leverock’s 153 last year made it four in a row for the Classic and four in a row for a Somerset batter to score a century in the Classic.

1, Chris Douglas — 128 in 2021

2, Dion Stovell — 111 not out in 2022

3, Dion Stovell — 139 in 2023

4, Kamau Leverock — 153 in 2024

b) Over the past ten years, eight centuries have been scored. OJ Pitcher (115 in 2014) and Onias Bascome (101 in 2018) are the two St George’s players to contribute to the Century Club during this period.

5, Most Valuable Player Awards

a) Given the dominance of Somerset over the past decade, it is reasonable that their players would dominate this category. In fact, a Somerset player has won the MVP award for nine of the past ten years.

b) Dion Stovell was the 2024 winner, his third MVP in a row, and fourth overall. He won for the first time in 2018.

c) Justin Pitcher in 2019 is the only occasion over the past decade when a St George’s player was the winner.

• See the print edition for all the stats related to Cup Match