Chris Read added his name to an exclusive list during Friday’s thrilling LV= County Championship success over Durham.
The Nottinghamshire captain became the 26th wicketkeeper to reach 1,000 first class dismissals when he hung on to a snick from Paul Collingwood, from the bowling of Brett Hutton.
The 37-year old made his first class debut in January 1998, whilst on tour with England A. His first game was against Kenya at the Ruaraka Sports Club Ground, Nairobi but he neither batted nor claimed a dismissal in the weather-ruined draw.
Significantly, there were no byes on the scorecard either.
That England A tour, skippered by Nick Knight, carried on to Sri Lanka and his second match was in Colombo, against the Sri Lankan Board President’s X1.
After making 24, the Paignton-born ‘keeper snapped up an edge off Jimmy Ormond to remove opener Ruwin Peiris – his maiden first class dismissal.
Four months later he made his Notts debut, at home to Durham – and again had a low-key start, beginning with a duck and failing to get his first victim for the county.
A week later, at Valentine’s Park, Ilford, he caught Essex’s Ronnie Irani, from the bowling of Mark Bowen to begin a haul of scalps for Notts which has now reached record-breaking proportions.
Read has scored 15,051 runs from his 319 first class matches, at an average of 37.53, with 24 centuries and a best of 240.
His 1,000 dismissals have been made of 950 catches and 50 stumpings and have been spread across appearances for his county and country, plus matches for England A, an England X1, the ECB National Academy and the MCC.
For Nottinghamshire alone, he has played 276 games, scored 13,793 runs and completed 879 dismissals, with 838 catches and 41 stumpings.
Trent Bridge supporters will bemoan the fact that he only played in 15 Tests but England’s loss has certainly been to Nottinghamshire’s advantage and all will want to congratulate him on reaching his latest milestone.
Notts Outlaws will face the Essex Eagles in the quarter-final of the NatWest T20 Blast, with a 6.30pm start on Monday 8 August at Trent Bridge, and tickets are on sale now.