Paul David Atkins (born 11 June 1966) is an English

first-class cricket First-class cricket, along with List A cricket and Twenty20 cricket, is one of the highest-standard forms of cricket. A first-class match is one of three or more days' scheduled duration between two sides of eleven players each and is officia ...

er. Atkins was a right-handed

batsman In cricket, batting is the act or skill of hitting the cricket ball, ball with a cricket bat, bat to score runs (cricket), runs and prevent the dismissal (cricket), loss of one's wicket. Any player who is currently batting is, since Septembe ...

who bowled right-arm

off break Off spin is a type of finger spin bowling in cricket. A bowler who uses this technique is called an off spinner. Off spinners are right-handed spin bowlers who use their fingers to spin the ball. Their normal delivery is an off break, which spi ...

. He was born in Aylesbury, Buckinghamshire.

Early career and Surrey

Atkins made his debut in county cricket for Buckinghamshire in the 1985 Minor Counties Championship against Cheshire. Atkins played

Minor counties The National Counties, known as the Minor Counties before 2020, are the cricketing counties of England and Wales that do not have first-class status. The game is administered by the National Counties Cricket Association (NCCA), which comes unde ...

cricket for a few years, before making his debut for Surrey in a first-class match against

Cambridge University The University of Cambridge is a Public university, public collegiate university, collegiate research university in Cambridge, England. Founded in 1209 and granted a royal charter by Henry III of England, Henry III in 1231, Cambridge is the world' ...

. Atkins played 23 further first-class matches for Surrey, the last coming against

Derbyshire Derbyshire ( ) is a ceremonial county in the East Midlands, England. It includes much of the Peak District National Park, the southern end of the Pennine range of hills and part of the National Forest. It borders Greater Manchester to the nor ...

in the 1993

County Championship The County Championship (referred to as the LV= Insurance County Championship for sponsorship reasons) is the domestic first-class cricket competition in England and Wales and is organised by the England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB). It bec ...

. In his 24 first-class matches for Surrey, he scored 1,081 runs at a

batting average Batting average is a statistic in cricket, baseball, and softball that measures the performance of batters. The development of the baseball statistic was influenced by the cricket statistic. Cricket In cricket, a player's batting average is ...

of 26.36, with 4 half centuries and a single century high score of 114 *. His highest score came against Cambridge University on debut. It was for Surrey that he made his debut in

List A cricket List A cricket is a classification of the limited-overs (one-day) form of the sport of cricket, with games lasting up to eight hours. List A cricket includes One Day International (ODI) matches and various domestic competitions in which the numb ...

against Glamorgan in the

1988 NatWest Trophy The 1988 NatWest Trophy was the 8th NatWest Trophy. It was an English limited overs county cricket tournament which was held between 22 June and 3 September 1988. The tournament was won by Middlesex who defeated Worcestershire by 3 wickets in t ...

. He played 6 further List A matches for Surrey, the last coming against

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in the 1993

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. For Surrey, he scored 154 runs in this format at an average of 25.66, with 2 half centuries and a high score of 82.

Return to Buckinghamshire

Atkins' time with Surrey came to an end at the end of the

1993 season File:1993 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The Oslo I Accord is signed in an attempt to resolve the Israeli–Palestinian conflict; The Russian White House is shelled during the 1993 Russian constitutional crisis; Czechoslovakia is peace ...

. It wasn't until 1998 that he began representing Buckinghamshire in Minor counties cricket again. It was the season following his return to the county that he first appeared for Buckinghamshire in List A cricket, against the

Yorkshire Cricket Board The Yorkshire Cricket Board is the governing body for all recreational cricket in the historic county of Yorkshire. From 1999 to 2003 the Board fielded a team in the English domestic one-day tournament, matches which had List A status. See al ...

in the

1999 NatWest Trophy The 1999 NatWest Trophy was the 19th NatWest Trophy. It was an English limited overs county cricket tournament which was held between 4 May and 29 August 1999. The tournament was won by Gloucestershire who defeated Somerset by 50 runs in the fin ...

. He played nine further List A matches for the county in the period when they were permitted to take part in English domestic List A cricket, with his final appearance coming against

Dorset Dorset ( ; archaically: Dorsetshire , ) is a county in South West England on the English Channel coast. The ceremonial county comprises the unitary authority areas of Bournemouth, Christchurch and Poole and Dorset. Covering an area of , ...

in the 1st round of the 2004 Cheltenham & Gloucester Trophy, which was played in 2003. In his 10 matches for the county, he scored 276 runs at an average of 34.50, with century high score of 110. This high score came against Suffolk in the

2003 Cheltenham & Gloucester Trophy The 2003 Cheltenham & Gloucester Trophy was an English county cricket tournament, held between 29 August 2002 and 30 August 2003. The competition was won by Gloucestershire who beat Worcestershire by 7 wickets at Lord's. Format The eighteen f ...

, with Atkins' innings being ended on 110 by Kevin Shaw. Atkins continued to play Minor counties cricket for Buckinghamshire through to 2010. He appeared in total in 90 Minor Counties games and 47

MCCA Knockout Trophy The National Counties Cricket Association Knockout Cup was started in 1983 as a knockout one-day competition for the National Counties in English cricket. At first it was known as the ''English Industrial Estates Cup'', before being called the ...

matches. He also captained Buckinghamshire. Outside of playing, Atkins coaches for KwaZulu-Natal in South Africa. It was some 14 years after playing first-class cricket that he turned out for KwaZulu-Natal Inland against South Western Districts in 2007. In this match he scored 4 runs in their first-innings before being dismissed by

Nathan Murray Nathan or Natan may refer to: People *Nathan (given name), including a list of people and characters with this name *Nathan (surname) *Nathan (prophet), a person in the Hebrew Bible * Nathan (son of David), biblical figure, son of King David an ...

, and in their second-innings he scored 18 runs before being dismissed by Rudy Hillermann. He is also a head coach for the

Andrew Flintoff Andrew "Freddie" Flintoff (born 6 December 1977) is an English television and radio presenter and former international cricketer. Flintoff played all forms of the game and was one of the sport's leading all-rounders, a fast bowler, middle-ord ...

Cricket Academy.

References

External links

Paul Atkins
at

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Paul Atkins
at CricketArchive {{DEFAULTSORT:Atkins, Paul 1966 births Living people Sportspeople from Aylesbury English cricketers Buckinghamshire cricketers Buckinghamshire cricket captains Surrey cricketers KwaZulu-Natal Inland cricketers English cricket coaches Cricketers from Buckinghamshire