Craig ‘Jeanie” Little has become just the 5th player in our 136 year history to score 5,000 runs and take 300 wickets.
Coming into this season 87 short of 5,000 runs and 11 short of 300 wickets, Jeanie has had a historical few weeks. The magical 5,000 run mark was passed in this 31 against Eastern Suburbs in Round 6, while his 300 wickets came up on the weekend with a caught Boyer bowled Little dismissal.
He becomes the 34th to reach the 5,000 mark and the 27th to reach the 300 wicket mark.
Craig now joins an elite company. Only 5 players have scored 5,000 runs or more and taken 300 or more wickets. They are Bruce Adrian (7,193 runs and 514 wickets), Eddie Robinson (9,343 runs and 483 wickets), Peter Philpott (5,535 runs and 499 wickets) and club coach Shawn Bradstreet (6,326 runs and 420 wickets). Craig’s current figure’s stand at 5,032 runs and 300 wickets which puts him next to some legends of our club.
Craig’s first season was in the 1999-2000 season where he played 2 solitary 5th grade games before beginning his rise up the ranks. He made his first grade debut in 2001-02, but was not able to make his 2nd appearance until the 2005-06 season. All in all Craig played 3 full season’s of first grade, scoring 1,469 runs at 27.72 and taking 25 wickets at 29.4.
But it is 3rd grade where Jeanie has made his mark with both bat and ball. Dropping down to skipper the side in 2008-09, he has scored 2,543 third grade runs, over half of his career total, and is the second highest run scorer in the last 30 years in 3rd grade behind Matt Cranney (2,820).
He has also taken 181 3rd grade wickets, again over half of his career record, and again is the 2nd highest 3rd grade wicket taker in the last 30 years behind Warren Evans (229).
There are rumours flying around that this may be Jeanie’s last year. Lets hope not. The stats above don’t recognise the contribution Jeanie has made to our club on the field as a skipper and as a leader. He has captained 3rd grade brilliantly for the last 6 years and we know he still has a premiership left in him.
Please join us in congratulating Craig on this fabulour achievement.
Craig Little – Runs and wickets by grade – up until end of Rnd 8 2013/14
| Grade | Inn | Runs | Highest | 100s | 50s | Avg | Wkts | Runs | Avg | 5fa |
| 1st Grade | 61 | 1,469 | 113 | 1 | 7 | 27.72 | 25 | 735 | 29.40 | 0 |
| 2nd Grade | 28 | 404 | 56 | 0 | 1 | 20.2 | 60 | 1,397 | 23.28 | 2 |
| 3rd Grade | 119 | 2,662 | 122 | 4 | 12 | 25.43 | 192 | 3,123 | 15.60 | 7 |
| 4th Grade | 15 | 355 | 112 | 1 | 3 | 27.31 | 17 | 469 | 27.59 | 0 |
| 5th Grade | 2 | 129 | 86 | 0 | 1 | 64.5 | 7 | 54 | 7.70 | 0 |
