Ben James Phillips (born 30 September 1974) is an English

cricket Cricket is a Bat-and-ball games, bat-and-ball game played between two Sports team, teams of eleven players on a cricket field, field, at the centre of which is a cricket pitch, pitch with a wicket at each end, each comprising two Bail (cr ...

er who played for

Nottinghamshire County Cricket Club Nottinghamshire County Cricket Club is one of eighteen first-class county clubs within the domestic cricket structure of England and Wales. It represents the historic county of Nottinghamshire. The club's limited overs team is called th ...

until his release in 2013. He is a right-handed batsman and right-arm fast-medium pace bowler.

Career

Phillips began his career at

Kent Kent is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in South East England. It is bordered by Essex across the Thames Estuary to the north, the Strait of Dover to the south-east, East Sussex to the south-west, Surrey to the west, and Gr ...

, appearing for their Second XI regularly throughout the late 1990s. His made his

first-class cricket First-class cricket, along with List A cricket and Twenty20 cricket, is one of the highest-standard forms of cricket. A first-class match is of three or more days scheduled duration between two sides of eleven players each and is officially adju ...

debut for the club against

Sussex Sussex (Help:IPA/English, /ˈsʌsɪks/; from the Old English ''Sūþseaxe''; lit. 'South Saxons'; 'Sussex') is an area within South East England that was historically a kingdom of Sussex, kingdom and, later, a Historic counties of England, ...

early in the 1996 season, taking four wickets in the match. He failed to impress during the following match against

Leicestershire Leicestershire ( ) is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in the East Midlands of England. It is bordered by Derbyshire, Nottinghamshire and Lincolnshire to the north, Rutland to the east, Northamptonshire to the south-east, Warw ...

, taking no wickets, and only made one more first-class appearance in the season. Despite scoring his maiden first-class century in

1997 Events January * January 1 – The Emergency Alert System is introduced in the United States. * January 11 – Turkey threatens Cyprus on account of a deal to buy Russian S-300 missiles, prompting the Cypriot Missile Crisis. * January 1 ...

against

Lancashire Lancashire ( , ; abbreviated ''Lancs'') is a ceremonial county in North West England. It is bordered by Cumbria to the north, North Yorkshire and West Yorkshire to the east, Greater Manchester and Merseyside to the south, and the Irish Sea to ...

and twice taking 5 wickets in an innings, he dropped out of the first-class game at the end of the 1998 season after 27 appearances for Kent. Between 1999 and 2001 he turned out regularly for Kent Second XI and played a spell of three one-day matches for the first team. He joined

Northamptonshire Northamptonshire ( ; abbreviated Northants.) is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in the East Midlands of England. It is bordered by Leicestershire, Rutland and Lincolnshire to the north, Cambridgeshire to the east, Bedfordshi ...

in 2002 but it was not until 2004 that he became a regular member of the first team; he was awarded his

county cap In sport, a cap is a player's appearance in a game at international level. The term dates from the practice in the United Kingdom of awarding a cap to every player in an international match of rugby football and association football. In the e ...

in 2005. In 53 first-class matches for Northamptonshire he averaged about 23 with the bat and about 31 with the ball. His highest first-class score for Northamptonshire was 90 against

Warwickshire Warwickshire (; abbreviated Warks) is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in the West Midlands (region), West Midlands of England. It is bordered by Staffordshire and Leicestershire to the north, Northamptonshire to the east, Ox ...

in 2004 and his best bowling was 6/29 against

Cambridge University The University of Cambridge is a Public university, public collegiate university, collegiate research university in Cambridge, England. Founded in 1209, the University of Cambridge is the List of oldest universities in continuous operation, wo ...

in 2006. At the end of the 2006 season, he asked to be released from his contract at Northamptonshire, as his family had not settled in the area. He joined

Somerset Somerset ( , ), Archaism, archaically Somersetshire ( , , ) is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in South West England. It is bordered by the Bristol Channel, Gloucestershire, and Bristol to the north, Wiltshire to the east ...

the following season. Injury hampered his chances to make a serious impression at Somerset, and by late 2009 he was primarily considered a squad player, with Director of Cricket Brian Rose stating "[Somerset] need people of Ben's calibre to come into the side when it is weakened for any reason." He joined Nottinghamshire in 2011 and although injury disrupted his first season, he was a mainstay of their County Championship attack in 2012 taking 30 wickets at 27.10.

References

External links

*
Player profile: Ben Phillips
from

Somerset County Cricket Club Somerset County Cricket Club is one of eighteen first-class cricket, first-class county cricket, county clubs within the domestic cricket structure of England and Wales. It represents the Historic counties of England, historic county of Somer ...

{{DEFAULTSORT:Phillips, Ben Kent cricketers Northamptonshire cricketers Somerset cricketers English cricketers 1974 births Living people NBC Denis Compton Award recipients Nottinghamshire cricketers Cricketers from the London Borough of Lewisham People from Lewisham