CRICKET: Wednesday lunchtime and only 40 minutes for Paul Hutchison to cram in 1,001 things.

First there were poses for the fans who wanted to photograph him outside the pavilion at Scarborough with the new Yorkshire first team cap which had just replaced the second team one.

Then there were all the congratulations, a quick bite to eat and on to his mobile phone to ring mum and dad and girlfriend Emma to pass on the news that he was now a fully fledged Yorkshire player.

All this, and still only 21, and more exciting news to look forward to next week for Paul is certain to book his passage on one of England's tours this winter.

Most likely it will be with England A to Zimbabwe, but Paul is known to be top of England coach David Lloyd's short list of promising left-arm fast bowlers, and he could be thrown in as the surprise package on the Ashes tour of Australia. Who knows?

The Pudsey St Lawrence product has been living life in the fast lane for the past 12 months, but has not forgotten how different the future looked just over a year ago.

"I had still not even received my second team cap and I appeared a long way off, particularly as Ryan Sidebottom was

making such great strides," said Paul.

"But it was also at Scarborough that I was presented with my second team cap, and after that everything happened so quickly."

Paul had shown on the England Under-19 tour of Zimbabwe in 1995-96 what a hot property he was, and claimed a shoal of wickets in conditions ideally suited to

moving the ball in the air.

But then a stress fracture to his back caused him to miss most of the 1996 season, and it was not until early last August that he got the chance of a first team match against Pakistan A because Sidebottom was on England Under-19 duty.

In a fairy-tale home debut for his county, he took seven for 38 to emerge with match

figures of 11 for 102, and his championship debut against Hampshire at Portsmouth was no less sensational.

The blond youngster claimed seven for 50 - figures only bettered on a first appearance in the competition by the great Wilfred Rhodes 99 years earlier.

Paul ended the season top of the averages with 37 first-class wickets from just seven matches at 20.02 runs apiece, and was selected as the youngest player for the England A tour of Kenya and Sri Lanka.

It would have been impossible for him to have consistently achieved such dramatic levels again this summer, but he has done more for his career by proving he can take wickets on a regular basis, the result being that he went into the Essex match as Yorkshire's leading wicket-taker.

He has also shown that he can shoulder hard work, his only absence being against Glamorgan with a broken thumb, and in addition he has earned a reputation of being one of the most difficult

nightwatchmen to prise out.

"I have achieved one ambition by getting my Yorkshire cap at Scarborough. Now I will work on the other, which is to get into the England Test team," he said.

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