Published on: Thursday, August 12, 2021
The Upper Sixth leaver, who hails from Torquay (where he plays his club cricket) has developed into a highly-talented and successful opening bowler since joining King’s College on a sports scholarship in September 2017.
As well as developing his skills in our cricketing programme, Sonny has also been part of the Somerset County Cricket Club Pathway, joining the academy at the Cooper Associates County Ground in September 2020.
In Somerset’s opening warm-up match of the season, Sonny impressed by claiming four wickets playing against Gloucestershire and made his full debut for the first XI in the opening match of the Royal London One-Day Cup competition against Derbyshire in July, taking three for 46. Since then he has become a regular in the team, sharing the new ball duties.
Following this success, Somerset CCC has just announced that Sonny has signed his first professional contract with the club in a deal which will see him play for the county until at least the end of the 2023 season.
After signing his contract, Sonny said: “Signing for Somerset is incredible. It’s the sort of thing that you dream about. It’s something I’ve worked really hard for, and I couldn’t be happier. It’s something that will stay with me for the rest of my life.
“Everything’s happened really fast. Just over a year ago I wasn’t even on the Academy. Now I’ve had a taste of first team cricket and I want more.”
Somerset CCC Director of Cricket, Andy Hurry is delighted to have secured the services of the young paceman. “It’s been really exciting to observe the development and performances of Sonny through the Academy programme, Under 18s County Age Group cricket, second XI cricket, and most recently, the Royal London Cup,” he said. “I’m delighted that we will have the opportunity to continue to work with him for at least the next couple of years and to watch him move closer to achieving his full potential and aspirations.”
Adding to this, our Director of Sport, Phil Lewis, commented on Sonny’s well-deserved success: “Sonny came to us as a very promising youngster and has worked his socks off for this well-deserved success. He has put a huge amount of work into not only his bowling action, but also his strength and conditioning and if there was ever a role model for our younger cricketers to follow it would be Sonny. He has tapped in to every ounce of what King’s can offer our cricketers and I we wish him all the best for what we know will be a bright future.”
Off the cricket field. Sonny has been celebrating a fantastic set of A level results this week.
Commenting, Sonny said: “Obviously, we had a game on Tuesday, so I didn’t look at my results until the evening. I wanted to concentrate on the game, and my results were going to be the same at 6.00pm as they would be at 8.30am in the morning. I’m really pleased with my results, which were two As and a B.”
Sonny now hopes to pursue a career in first-class cricket and given the success he has enjoyed to date, he looks to have a rosy future both on and off the field. We wish Sonny all the very best and look forward to following his new career closely. We hope he’ll pop back to see us and to share his experiences with some of our young aspiring cricketers.