Image taken by: Roger Byrne

Hertfordshire all-rounder Andrew Neal has become the latest player to graduate to the first-class ranks from National Counties cricket after signing a short-term contract.

Neal, a right-handed batter and slow left-armer, has been on an extended trial with Hampshire for most of this season and, having impressed in their Second XI, has now been promoted to the first team squad ahead of the Metro Bank One Day Cup.

He is the fifth National Counties player to be signed by a first-class county in two weeks following Cambridgeshire batter Nikhil Gorantla, who has joined County Champions Surrey, and Bedfordshire batter Amrit Basra and Staffordshire pair Joe Hawkins and Rory Haydon who have all been snapped up by Derbyshire. Hawkins is making his first-class debut in the current Rothesay County Championship match against Northamptonshire.

Neal, 25, has first experience with Leeds/Bradford MCCU in 2019 and he has also played Second XI cricket for Essex, Northamptonshire, Nottinghamshire and Worcestershire.

He has been a heavy run scorer for Hertfordshire across all formats with 900 runs in 17 NCCA Cluberly Championship matches, 398 in the National Counties Trophy and 108 in National Counties T20 cricket. Neal has also taken 43 Championship wickets including 11 in the match in the victory over Cumbria at Kendal last year.

Neal, like Haydon, has also showcased his talent playing for the Challengers representative side and he increases the number of current players – already over 150 - with National Counties experience at some stage in their careers across the first-class counties.

Two members of England’s squad in action against India at The Oval – Jamie Overton (Devon) and Chris Woakes (Herefordshire) – played their formative senior county cricket for National – formerly Minor Counties – as did four members of the Professional County Clubs XI squad - Jafer Chohan (Berkshire), Scott Currie (Dorset), Dan Douthwaite (Wales NC) and Mitch Stanley (Shropshire) that played Pakistan A in three one-day matches last week.

Neal joins Currie, Toby Albert (Berkshire) Joe Eckland, Felix Organ and Tom Prest (Dorset) and Liam Dawson and James Vince (Wiltshire) among the National Counties graduates on Hampshire’s staff. In addition four members of the Hampshire Cricket Academy – Sam Ashman (Wiltshire), Andrew MacEwen (Berkshire) and Ethan Baker and Finn Gordon (Dorset) have gained valuable experience of senior county cricket by playing for National Counties this season.