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Player Profiles #1: Darren Lunney


Unlike Desmond from Jesmond it's not Lunney from Scunny but Darren does hail from considerably north of the Watford Gap.

Since making his debut for the club in 1999 he is the only man to have batted over 500 times and has scored over 8,000 runs in the process making him the third-highest scorer in club history. 

Although he has only reached three figures once it was a landmark innings and he has shown the ability to scale those heights again.

Unfortunately he generally runs out of oxygen (and overs) in the 70s.

Anyone who has seen Darren bat regularly will not be surprised to know he is also the only man in club history to be dismissed without scoring on over 50 occasions. 

There have been scoreless edges to the keeper, rearranged stumps and reckless slashes but none to compare to the duck at Eversholt when he was tardy in his arrival at the crease, irked the opposition further with his traditional routine of back stretches and marking his guard in the approved Chanderpaul manner and was promptly cleaned up.

In fairness to Darren his batting has come a long way since the early days of his career when he was something of a walking wicket and he has worked far harder than anyone else to improve. 

Initially Darren demonstrated improvement by bring along a friend, Brian Moslin. Brian was a wonderfully inept batsman and remains the only player in club history to have smoked a pipe in the changing room. In comparison to Brian, Darren was a player of great potential and production.

When Brian was ruthlessly shown the door by Steve Bexfield after seven matches, Darren realised he could no longer depend on looking good in comparison to his hapless accomplice and set about working on his game.

Today he has established himself as the club's senior opening batsman and while he will never shed the memory of playing out nine maidens in a row against Tom Reilly in a 45-over game, he has added strokes to his repertoire that mean while he is not necessarily at the middle for a good time it will not necessarily be a brief time.

He may not have the flashing blade of a Warner or provide a cornerstone at the top in the manner of a Hayden or a Cook but he is comfortably the most dependable block of balsa in the Offley ranks.

He has taken over 230 wickets to the consternation of batsmen everywhere and has also claimed more catches for the club than anyone else, 223 as of the end of the 2020 season.

There's no record of how many catches Darren has actually dropped but as anyone who can testify to the bruises on his body after a game or witnessed his unique technique of trying to snaffle the ball will tell you (honestly, it's like a ravenous crocodile with a dislocated jaw trying to bite a mosquito) it's liable to be a fairly significant number.

Despite his all-round contributions on and off the field, Darren is perhaps most noted for his eclectic fashion sense. The main photograph shows him during his boy band days but his penchant for unusual shorts and top colour combos mark him out as a fearless follower of fashion.

Did You Know: Darren doesn't believe in sunscreen 

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