Glamorgan’s recent County Championship match against Leicestershire at Swansea saw a moment of cricket history as Robert Croft, the veteran Glamorgan all-rounder, became the Welsh county’s first-ever player and the first for any county since 1972 to achieve the fantastic career double of 1,000 first-class wickets and 10,000 first-class runs for a single club.
The 40 year-old achieved this magnificent milestone when he claimed his 1,000th first-class wicket for Glamorgan when he dismissed Wayne White to become the first county cricketer since Hampshire’s Peter Sainsbury in May 1972 to complete the double of 10,000 runs and 1,000 first-class wickets for just one county.
Only the following eight players have achieved this feat in county cricket since the end of the Second World War:
| Player | County | Runs | Wickets |
| Trevor Bailey | Essex 1946–1967 | 21460 | 1593 |
| Tony Brown | Gloucestershire 1953–1976 | 12684 | 1223 |
| Tom Cartwright | Warwickshire 1952–1969 | 10781 | 1058 |
| Ray Illingworth | Yorkshire 1951–1983 | 14986 | 1431 |
| Derek Morgan | Derbyshire 1950–1969 | 17842 | 1216 |
| John Mortimore | Gloucestershire 1950–1975 | 14918 | 1696 |
| Peter Sainsbury | Hampshire 1954–1976 | 19576 | 1245 |
| Fred Titmus | Middlesex 1949–1982 | 17320 | 2361 |
Croft also became the first county bowler to take a thousand wickets for one club since Martin Bicknell achieved the feat for Surrey, taking his 1000th wicket during their Championship match with Glamorgan at The Oval in May 2005 – ironically when Croft was leading the Welsh county although the off-spinner was not one of Bicknell’s eight wickets in the contest as he reached the coveted milestone.
The late Phil Carrick narrowly missed out on achieving the feat for Yorkshire for whom he took 1018 wickets and scored 9994 runs during his career for the White Rose county between 1970 and 1993. He had gone into Yorkshire’s final match of the 1993 season, against Surrey at The Oval, needing 20 runs to reach the 1,000-run mark.
Rain washed out the first two day’s play before Surrey batted first when play finally got underway on the third day. After the home side had been dismissed shortly before the close of play, Carrick was promoted to open the batting and ended the day 14 not out, just six runs short of his target. But the rains returned the following day, washing the final day of the contest and preventing Carrick from reaching his goal.
Fortunately, the weather gods have smiled more favourably on Croft, and given the changes which have been talked about taking place to the county calendar in the future, the 40-year-old might also be the last-ever player the reach this milestone for a single club.
