Stephen Ball's big day playing cricket for Murton 25 years ago

Murton, the home side, batted first against Peterlee in a Vaux Durham Coast League fixture and Stephen, who opened the innings with Stephen Vaulks, hit two sixes and six boundaries in a scintillating innings of 70, before being bowled by Meek as Murton powered their way to 184-5 before making an early declaration.

However, the best was still to come, as the left handed bat and right arm medium pace bowler took all ten Peterlee wickets in 10.3 overs for a miserly 27 runs. 

Stephen said: "Another 30 runs and I would have hit a century and then taken all 10 wickets. 

“I'm sure that very few cricketers have achieved all that in a single innings game."

Stephen was born in Brandon in 1965 and remembers making his debut for the Tudhoe first team when he was only 10 years. 

"My dad, Billy, was playing in the first team at the time,” he said. “I probably went to watch him and then filled in for someone who was missing. Hunter Cummins soon had me playing for the junior teams at Tudhoe and I stayed with them until I was 19, when I joined Philadelphia in the Durham Senior League as I had aspirations to play for Durham.”

He added: "My pal at Philadelphia was Paul Burn. I learnt a lot from him and we both went to Warwickshire for trials, but we just felt so very much out of place down there that we didn't want to stay.”

Stephen achieved his dream of playing for Durham when he made his debut against Suffolk in 1989 in the Minor Counties Championship. He had another game, against Cambridgeshire, in 1990.

He played for the Durham Cricket Board in List A matches and can recall facing Northants bowler Devon Malcolm (above) not long after Malcolm had bowled Viv Richards in the Caribbean. At List A level he scored 80 runs at an average of 13.33 and took seven wickets at 30.14.

As a professional cricketer he led a nomadic existence with contracts at not only Murton but also Crook, Norton, Tudhoe, Philadelphia and Shildon. It was not an easy life. 

"I can recall working at Electrolux where I would stand for eight hours and then go and play cricket against opponents who played for their country,” he said. "The quickest guy that I faced was Patterson Thomson from the West Indies. He was in the 'rapid' class, but I was never afraid of anyone, no matter how quick they were.

"One of the quickest bowlers that I played with was Barrington Brown at Tudhoe. I can remember a game at Shildon BR when my dad and his two brothers, Eddie and Harry, went into the social club at Shildon for a couple of pints before the game. When they came out the game was over because Shildon had batted first and Brown had taken 8-12." 

Besides his 10 wickets for Murton 25 years ago, Stephen also recalls hitting six sixes against Etherley when he was the pro at Norton, while his highest score was 178 for Murton against Eppleton in the Durham Coast League.

He said: "My dad says that my best innings was for Brandon against Langley Park, who had batted first and made 210. In our reply we lost wickets at regular intervals and at one point we had lost nine. 

“I made 158 not out and Extras with 15 was our second top scorer as we passed their total with nine wickets down.

"My dad also says that like a lot of other cricketers from my era, we were born 10 years too young.”

Other achievements that Stephen, now 58, is proud of include the season that he was the Sunday Sun Player of the Year at Senior level while Paul Collingwood took the same award at Junior level. 

While at Murton in 1997, he was the first player to top both the Durham Coast League batting and bowling averages which he achieved.

In the 1998 season, when he took his ten wickets and hit 70 runs, at one point he was averaging over 100 in league cricket. Crowds of 200 were common at Murton the team were top of the league after finishing third the season before.

Stephen set up his own taxi business which began to interfere with his cricket. 

"Sometimes I would have to leave a game early to do my taxi work, but I knew it was time to finish playing cricket when I was sick driving home after a game,” he said. “I was 48 at the time and my body was telling me that was enough." 

Stephen Ball, playing for Norton against Chester-le-Street in 2000

WE have found three first class cricketers who hit a century and took 10 wickets, but they were bowling in two innings. They are Ian Botham in 1980, Imran Khan in 1983 and Shakib Al Hasan, the Bangladeshi player, in 2014.

Does anyone know of a cricketer, at any level, who has hit 100 and taken all 10 wickets in a single innings game?

• Thanks this week to Stephen, Michael Burke and Alan Stewart.