CORIN'S LIFETIME DREAM HAUL OF 10: AT 58!

LEFT-ARM slow bowler Chris Corin, at the age of 58, claimed his first 10-wicket match haul and the first in his club's 56-year history, according to the memory of their umpire of 50 seasons, Gordon Loveland. It happened at Amberley on an August Sunday. He took 10 for 28 off 11.5 overs with two maidens, the last five wickets costing just two runs and the last six falling in 19 deliveries.
By The Newsroom
Published 21st Oct 2004, 13:09 BST
Updated 8th Jun 2018, 01:19 BST

Ironically, Corin himself remembers preventing team-mate Bob Cantle from achieving the feat 20 years earlier: "I have to admit taking the last wicket with a caught-and-bowled that left Bob with nine for 31. I remember at school in a full-afternoon colts match our captain, an off-spinner, took all 10 but that is the only time I have witnessed it '” other than hearing Jim Laker take all 10 on the radio in 1956."

A more spectacular, diving caught-and-bowled completed Corin's 10 this time. The feat took the Amberley community by surprise. Their players were generous in their congratulations but village pub The Black Horse did not do jugs. So the following week, Pathfinder took theirs back to The Cricketers in Worthing to be filled.

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Corin bowled the second over and hit the stumps third ball, but was hit for six in his second over and for two fours in his third. No Pathfinder bowler had taken more than three wickets in a match this summer. They play only Sunday friendlies.

Comments Corin: "Taking all 10 is a freak event. Antony Allchin and Ross Baumann bowled as well, if not better, at the other end. Maybe the slow wicket favoured slow bowling rather than medium pace and my bowling appeared invitingly innocuous. I bowl slow-left-arm: "spinner" is too flattering a term these days.

"It was a matter of keeping the ball up to the bat, and of poor batting rather than great bowling. At my end, batsmen played across the line and were caught. At the other end they kept out the straight balls and failed to edge others.

"Apart from the first over of the innings, there were no dropped catches. Eight were held and for the second, the only batsman to hit me straight was magnificently caught by Paul Wilkins '” still a very safe pair of hands.

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"That set me on my way. I have reached the stage in my career where I doubted whether I would achieve a five-wicket haul again. Not until I had taken seven did taking all 10 enter my thoughts.

"When the eighth fell, I had reached my previous best of eight for 52 but it brought in Matt Barton, the Amberley captain, who I knew was a capable cricketer. I did not expect him to fall easily. I had been told he had been rather scathing about how his batsmen had played me. He came in and did exactly the same thing and top-edged a catch.

"This meant I had a chance of a hat-trick and four balls left in the over at the last man. I should never have a better chance. He missed the first ball and it just missed the stumps. The next ball was just short of a fielder but the fifth was hit back firmly and low and I fell to my right and clung onto it."

Concludes Chris: "It was great to take all 10 and it will look good in next year's fixture card. But it has been even more pleasurable to have played for a team like Pathfinder for 32 years. It is a friendly club that plays cricket in the right spirit and nurtures and encourages young players.

"The greatest pleasure of all has been to play alongside my sons Robert (22] and Michael (20] and see them develop into fine cricketers."