The man who scored 48 runs in one over

STEVE DUBLIN was not really timing the ball on Sunday, which is perhaps just as well for the weekend gardeners of Kearsley. Up until the 25th over of Kearsley's Hamer Cup semi- final against Heaton, also of the Bolton League, he had hit a mere six sixes - modest by the standards of a player who earlier this season scored a century off 35 balls.

In the 25th, however - extended by three no-balls - Dublin launched eight sixes in what might just be the most runs - 48 - scored in an over. Wisden is on the job.

"I've never seen anything like it," Rob Slater said. He should know - he was bowling. "I've bowled to first-class cricketers, like Mike Watkinson, who are supposed to hit the ball pretty hard - but nothing like this. He had lost all the other balls and the umpire didn't want me to bowl the last delivery with one that was already split."

Dublin clouted it over the clubhouse to win the match. It was one of his lesser blows. Another virtual miscue also flew for six, but the others would have cleared the boundary on most cricket grounds in the world, let alone Springfield Road, Kearsley.

"People come out into their gardens hoping that they might be able to guard their property when Steve comes in to bat," Gary Thornton, the club secretary, said.

Dublin, a 27-year-old from the West Indian cricket backwater of Montserrat, has been playing for various league sides for 10 years. That is long enough to qualify as an English player and he has played trial matches for Lancashire seconds this season. A batsman once described by no less an authority than Viv Richards as the hardest hitter in the game, remains happy, however, with the lesser demands of club cricket.

Slater, who "didn't think I was bowling badly," admits to sitting glassy- eyed in front of a lot of late-night television this week, wondering "Why me?"

He is unlikely to run short of reminders. On the evening of the debacle, he was summoned to take a phone call. "Hurry up, Rob, it's the Guinness Book of Records." And, somewhere over by the bar, they were humming the theme tune from Recordbreakers.