Another came in round 13 when a longstanding club record was broken by David Sloane who stepped down this season after a decade as association president.

He has been a regular player in senior matches with his club for 32 years, and has now made more first grade appearances than any other player.

The record of 282 matches had been held by Peter Harvey since he retired from the game without fanfare at the end of the 1997-98 season.

Making his first grade debut in 1982-83, Sloane was a team-mate of Harvey for 15 years.

It has taken Sloane several more seasons to take the record, for his first grade career appeared to have almost finished during 2004-05 and 2005-06.

However he made a huge effort to regain his place in the top grade, and while he may be a little lower in the order, he is still making valuable contributions.

At the time of Harvey’s retirement he had established a bowling record of 645 first grade wickets at an average of 12.77 – a feat that may never be challenged.

He was also a batsman of sound technique who had scored 4,262 runs which had just been overtaken by Sloane.

Sloane has now taken his aggregate to 6,426 and when he retires, his record will stand for a long time considering none in the present team are anywhere near half that number.

Harvey remains in second place, while Gary Bridge and Jake Bentley are the only others to have scored more than 3000.

Harvey and Sloane are also on their own for having taken more than 100 catches for their club’s first grade side.

Asked for his reaction to breaking the record Sloane said, “Firstly, I must acknowledge Peter’s career and how many games he played in firsts without having too many in seconds.”

“I can’t remember him ever getting dropped to seconds in all that time, he was hardly ever injured and bowled many, many overs in an era where there were no restrictions on bowlers.”