Sam Billings wins Walter Lawrence Trophy for fastest century in county cricket

Kent’s Sam Billings is the joint-winner of this year’s Walter Lawrence Trophy, awarded for the fastest hundred of the season.

The wicketkeeper-batsman will share the award with Middlesex’s Dan Christian after both men having scored 46-ball centuries in 2014.

Billings, a product of the Kent Academy, made his dashing hundred in the Royal London One-Day Cup match against Somerset at Taunton on July 31.

Coming in at number seven the 23-year-old Pembury-born wicket-keeper, voted 2014 Spitfire Player of the Year, spanked 12 fours and 4 sixes in his century, going on to finish unbeaten on 135, made off 58 balls.

Earlier in the season, Sydney-born Christian hit nine fours and eight sixes in his hundred against Kent in the NatWest T20 Blast game at Canterbury on June 6.

Billings and Christian are the fourth pair in the competition’s history to share the award, which they will receive, along with prize money of £3,000, at a dinner in The Long Room at Lord’s on Thursday 6 November.

Now in its 80th year, the Walter Lawrence Trophy is open to all domestic county competitions as well as One-Day Internationals, Twenty20 Internationals and Test Matches in England.