Adam Shantry, the Glamorgan left-arm seamer, will return to Shrewsbury in the next few weeks to take up a winter secondment at an accountancy firm – still basking in the glory of finishing fourth in this year’s County Championship bowling averages.
Shantry, the ex-Perkins and Shropshire man, exploded on to the national cricket scene after an injury-ravaged first half of the season to take 30 wickets at 18.16 apiece in just seven Championship matches.
Such a return saw him finish only behind Durham’s Mark Davies, Hampshire’s Pakistani international spinner Imran Tahir and Worcestershire’s ex-England man Simon Jones in a bowling list featuring a who’s who of star names.
Shantry admits it came as a nice surprise to finish so high in the averages, but a stunning display in the final match of the season last week, ironically against his old Warwickshire team-mates at Edgbaston, saw him take five wickets in both innings.
“Fourth place in the averages is more than I could have hoped for after not having bowled a ball halfway through the season,” said the ex-Priory School pupil.
“At the start of the season when I spoke to Matt Maynard, the coach, my target was to get 30 wickets, and that’s if I had played in every game, so to do it in seven matches is great.
“I’ve had a few calls from well wishers since the list appeared and it’s really nice that people have got in touch.
“I’ve had a bad time in the past with injuries but this has ended up being a brilliant season, and it’s going perfectly at the moment.
“It was great how it finished against Warwickshire and in the hotel room the night before the match I just had a feeling I was going to get five wickets.”
His haul included his former Warwickshire skipper Darren Maddy and England wicketkeeper Tim Ambrose, whom he managed to get rid of in both innings.
Shantry, under contact at the Swalec Stadium next season, now hopes to agree an extension with the Welsh county until 2010 as he’s really enjoying his cricket in Cardiff.
For the next few months, though, he will be concentrating on a new challenge having secured a secondment with Shrewsbury accountants Dyke Yaxley until the end of February.
“I need to get some skills outside cricket and I’m looking forward to getting started,” he said.
“I’m also going to be doing some indoor coaching with the Shropshire age groups so it will be nice to see the talent that’s coming through.”