Sam Northeast played for Kent from 2007 before joining Hampshire in 2018. However, he left the South Coast club during last summer and had brief spells on loan with Yorkshire and Nottinghamshire before agreeing a three-year deal with the Welsh county from 2022. On 28 August 2025 it was confirmed that Sam will return to Kent on a two-year contract, with the option of an extra year.
Over the past decade, Sam has been one of the most consistent batters in the county game not to have played international cricket for England, and he joined Glamorgan for 2022 with a healthy first-class tally of 10,839 runs at an average of 38.30, as well as 25 centuries, plus a strong record in white-ball cricket with over 5,000 runs in List A and T20 cricket. Born near Ashford, the right-handed batter grew up in Walmer near Dover and enjoyed an outstanding record as a schoolboy for Wellesley House in Broadstairs, more than doubling the previous record for runs scored in a season, which had been set by the late Graham Cowdrey in 1977.
After winning a sports scholarship to Harrow, Sam became one of the youngest players to play in the famous match against Eton at Lord’s, besides being a member of the Harrow XI which was touring Sri Lanka when the 2004 tsunami struck, with Sam and his friends escaping injury by climbing on to the roof of the pavilion at Galle. During his time at Harrow, Sam play for England age-group teams in addition to making his debut for Kent 2nd XI in 2005, hitting 96 on his debut against Derbyshire’s second string.
July 2007 saw Sam make his bow in Kent’s 1st XI in their List A match against Sri Lanka before making his first-class debut in mid-September against Durham at Canterbury. Sam duly won a regular place in Kent’s line-up in both formats of the game after leaving Harrow School. In September 2009, Sam posted his maiden first-class hundred as he scored an unbeaten 128 whilst opening the batting against Gloucestershire at Bristol.
Sam won his Kent cap in 2012 before being appointed the club’s vice-captain in 2014, prior to taking over as the club’s captain at the start of the 2016 season. It proved to be a run-laden summer for him as he amassed a career-best 1402 first-class runs, and struck five centuries. This has been one of four summers when Sam has topped the 1,000 run mark, with the most recent being 2019 when he registered four first-class centuries. By this time, Sam was a Hampshire player having joined them in 2018 – a season when he was a key figure in their One-Day Cup triumph, before appearing for the England Lions the following year.
Sam duly enjoyed a stellar first season with Glmaorgan, scoring 1,990 runs in all formats with a monumental 410* against Leicestershire at Grace Road, plus an unbeaten 177 in the Royal London game against Worcestershire at New Road. Both broke the Club’s record books as the highest-ever first-class and List A score. Fittingly, Sam won the 2022 Glamorgan Player of the Season Award.
In 2024 Sam became the Welsh county’s captain in red ball cricket as well as the first Glamorgan batter to score a double-hundred at Lord’s as, in the Vitality County Championship match against Middlesex, he made an unbeaten 335. His innings was also the highest-ever scored in a first-class match at the historic ground in St.John’s Wood so Sam has now recorded the two highest individual scores for Glamorgan.
Sam enjoyed a decent season with the bat in 2025, scoring 883 first-class runs and hitting three further centuries. It was, though, collective success that marked what proved to be his final summer in Wales as under his quiet and thoughtful captaincy, Sam led Glamorgan in 2025 to second place in Division Two of the Rothesay County Championship as the Welsh county secured promotion to Division One of the premier first-class competition for 2026.
With his wife and young family still living in Canterbury, Sam has accepted an offer to return to Kent for 2026.
NORTHEAST, Sam Alexander
Born – Ashford, 16 October 1989
Best performances for Glamorgan:
In first-class cricket – 410* v Leicestershire at Grace Road, Leicester, 2022
In List A cricket -177* v Worcestershire at New Road, Worcester, 2022
In Twenty20 cricket – 97* v Essex at Chelmsford, 2022
Batting and Fielding Record (as at 14/10/25)
| M | I | NO | RUNS | AV | 100 | 50 | CT | ST | |
| F-c | 54 | 92 | 12 | 3722 | 46.53 | 10 | 12 | 25 | – |
| List A | 20 | 20 | 4 | 876 | 54.75 | 2 | 6 | 7 | – |
| T20 | 35 | 33 | 6 | 1041 | 38.56 | – | 8 | 15 | – |
Bowling Record (as at 14/10/25)
| Balls | M | R | W | AV | 5wI | 10wM | |
| F-c | 62 | 1 | 55 | 0 | – | – | – |