The signing of Jamie Dalrymple during the autumn of 2007 was a major coup for Glamorgan as never before had they signed a player from another county in the same year that they had played for England. He proved to be an astute and erudite captain who, in successive seasons, nearly guided Glamorgan to promotion into Division One of the County Championship.

The off-spinner and middle-order batsman had made his Middlesex debut in 2000 shortly before beginning his studies at Oxford University. Whilst in residence, he made a double hundred in the 2003 before bludgeoning the Cambridge attack for another hundred in their one-day match. The following summer Jamie won a regular place in the Middlesex side and made a career-best 244 against Surrey at The Oval before posting his maiden one-day hundred for Middlesex against Glamorgan.

His accurate off-spin also led to his selection in England’s one-day team during June 2006 with Jamie making the first of 27 appearances in One-Day Internationals against Ireland at Stormont. He also featured in the England squad for the ICC World Cup in the West Indies in 2007, but  only played in three games in the Caribbean and after returning to county cricket, Jamie also lost his place as well in the Middlesex team.

Having decided to join the Welsh county, Jamie was the heir apparent to the Glamorgan captaincy during 2008, and impressed with a fine hundred against Middlesex in the Championship match at Colwyn Bay, besides enjoying an extended run as an off-spinner, ahead of Robert Croft, in the one-day games during the first part of the season. The summer also saw the Welsh county reach the T20 quarter-finals as well as featuring in the play-offs of the 40-over competition and at the end of a season which saw him win the Club’s Player of the Year Award, Jamie was elevated to the captaincy.

2009 proved to be something of a curate’s egg for Jamie and his team as they lost 18 of their 29 one-day games with the Club’s best cricket coming in the longer form of the game, with Glamorgan amongst several teams jousting during the closing games for promotion into Division One. In tense conditions at their Cardiff headquarters, Jamie’s team came within one wicket of defeating promotion rivals Essex as well as Gloucestershire  as each game went agonisingly to the final ball.

A similar scenario unfolded during 2010 when, after seven Championship victories, including four in succession during May, the Welsh county began the closing round of games in pole position to return to county cricket’s top tier, but on the final day of the season they were pipped at the post by Worcestershire, who Glamorgan had comprehensively defeated home and away, after completing a run chase at New Road against Sussex – who in the eyes of many – had made a very generous declaration.

DALRYMPLE, James William Murray         

Born – Nairobi, 21^st January, 1981.                                 

Best performances for Glamorgan:

In first-class cricket – 128 v Derbyshire at Derby, 2009; 4/71 v Northamptonshire at Northampton, 2010.

In List A cricket – 78* v Derbyshire at SWALEC Stadium, 2009; 3/47 v Somerset at Taunton, 2008.

In T20 cricket – 63 v Warwickshire at Edgbaston, 2009; 3/25 v Surrey at SWALEC Stadium, 2010.

	M	I	NO	RUNS	AV	100	50	CT	ST
First-class	48	70	4	2286	34.64	5	13	44	–
List A	34	33	5	733	26.18	–	5	13	–
T20	35	32	5	751	27.81	–	2	10	–

	Balls	M	R	W	AV	5wI	10wM
First-class	2837	56	1523	40	38.08	–	–
List A	878	3	823	19	43.32	–	–
T20	391	0	512	24	21.33	–	–