Bishop’s Stortford is delighted to confirm the dual signing of Australian State stars, Henry Hunt, and Alex Ross, for their 2024 Hertfordshire Premier League campaign.
Given the lack of full-season availability from top-end professionals, Stortford’s move is one we envisage clubs will replicate moving forward. In their case, the ability to have Hunt for the front, and Ross for the back half of the season ensures they have a stand-out professional for the entire summer. Something the majority of clubs will struggle with for the upcoming season.
No strangers to UK club cricket, the Australian stars, who were former team-mates at South Australia, have 6 overseas stints between them.
Last summer, Hunt was Professional for Rochdale (2023) in the Lancashire League and enjoyed success as a sub-pro with Moddershall and Oulton in the North Staffs and South Cheshire League.
Over the past two seasons (2022-23), Ross has been a stand-out performer in the strong Surrey Championship. Playing in the Premier division for Reigate Priory, the BBL star racked up 1,518 runs at 47.44 with 7 fifties, 3 hundreds, 154 fours, and 46 sixes.
Back home, Hunt opens the batting for the Redbacks, with whom he used to skipper before Jake Lehmann took over the reins. A former Australian Under-19 (Jan 2016) representative, Hunt has since become one of Australia’s leading openers, hitting 8 centuries, and 9 fifties amongst 2,680 runs at 32.68 in his 43 Sheffield Shield matches since his first-class debut in October 2019.
Ross will be no stranger to UK viewers who have seen him dominate for Sydney Thunder in the Big Bash on TV in recent years. Known as the “sweepologist”, Ross is a white-ball sensation, who has featured in 100 BBL matches, initially for the Adelaide Strikers (2014/15-15/16), and Brisbane Heat (2016/17-18/19), before his move to the Thunder in 2019/20.
The pair are now set to dovetail the Hertfordshire League summer for Bishop’s Stortford, and this dual signing is no doubt something we’ll see plenty of in future, in UK club cricket.
