WICKETKEEPING is truly a family affair for former Glamorgan star Mark Wallace and his dad Ryland.

And while Abergavenny CC product Mark set all sorts of records in a stellar career with the county, where he is now director of cricket, club man Ryland is still going strong in his 70s, with a call up for the Wales over 60s team that are flying out to India this Saturday for the age-group World Cup.

Crickhowell-born Welsh speaker Ryland is heading for Chennai for three weeks as part of an 18-strong squad. 

Ryland Wallace
Ryland Wallace (Abergavenny CC)

The retired history teacher, who still plays for Abergavenny CC 4ths, has played 118 games for the Wales over 60s, skippering them as well, and recently started playing for the over 70s also. 

And he is rightly proud of son Mark, who played for England U19s and the England Academy, and captained Glamorgan during a superb career, making his bow in first class cricket at just 17 years old, to become their youngest ever player behind the stumps. 

In an 18-year career with Glam, he took 944 first class catches and 131 stumpings and scored over 15,000 runs.   

Mark Wallace takes another wicket
Mark Wallace takes another wicket (Glamorgan CC)

In 2011, he became the first Glamorgan wicketkeeper to ever score a thousand first-class runs in a season, surpassing Jimmy Stone’s record aggregate set in 1923.

He also holds the record for the most first-class centuries by a Glamorgan wicketkeeper (15) with his highest score of 139 coming in the final game of the 2009 season against Surrey at the Oval.

But it’s Abergavennby CC stalwart Ryland who is in the spotlight this month, with the opening ceremony in Chennai on Sunday, February 18, after a warm-up against Zimbabwe on the Friday, followed by the start of the World Cup against Pakistan on Monday, Feb 19.

Other games are then against the West Indies on Thurs, Feb 22; Sri Lanka, Fri, Feb 23; Bangladesh, Mon, Feb 26; India, Tues, Feb 27; and Australia, Wed, Feb 28.   

For more details see walesseniorcricket.co.uk/world-cup/ and the Wales Vets Cricket Facebook page.

Meanwhile, Abergavenny CC have announced that they will be hosting a four-day 2nd XI county fixture this coming season, when Glamorgan host Lancashire Cricket, starting on Tuesday, May 14.

Elsewhere, Usk CC’s Matt Hancock and Matt Williams are celebrating victory with Sloggers CC in the European Cricket Network League T10 series in Gibraltar. Williams also secured a player of the match award hitting an unbeaten 27 off 19 balls and taking 5/7. 

Sloggers beat Tarik in the final, limiting their rivals to 100/4 before reaching 103/1 with 2.3 overs to spare.