FORMER England and Nottinghamshire batsman Derek Randall will be the guest speaker of the Worcestershire Cricket Society in the Graeme Hick Pavilion on Tuesday evening.

Randall scored 2,470 runs in 47 Tests at an average of 33.37 with seven tons including 174 in the 1977 Centenary Test against Australia at Melbourne.

He was ahead of his time with the kind of fine fielding when patrolling the covers that is now commonplace in the modern game.

Randall, now aged 67, ended his career with 28,456 first-class runs at an average of 38.14 with 52 hundreds and 12,300 List A runs at 32.28.

He made his first-class debut for Nottinghamshire in 1972 against Essex and top-scored with 78 batting at number eight.

Retford-born Randall, known as Arkle after the famous racehorse, played first-class cricket for two decades before retiring in 1993 and the Derek Randall Suite is named in his honour at Trent Bridge.

He then played for Suffolk until the turn of the century at the age of 49 and coached Cambridge University and at Bedford School where he played a big role in Alastair Cook’s development.

Randall will recall stories from all parts of his career before participating in a question-and-answer session with society members.

Non-society members can attend winter cricket evenings, which begin at 7.30pm, for an admission charge of £5.

Meanwhile, Moeen Ali’s excellent performances for England with the ball during the second half of 2018 are reflected in his high placing for most wickets in international cricket during the calendar year.

The Worcestershire all-rounder, who led the Rapids to Vitality Blast trophy glory, finished the calendar year with a combined tally of 62 wickets from Test, ODI and T20I matches.

It is the fourth best tally this year with only India’s Kuldeep Yadav (76), Moeen’s spin partner Adil Rashid (76) and South Africa’s Kagiso Rabada (71) ahead of the 31-year-old.

Moeen achieved his lofty position despite being left out of five successive Test matches against New Zealand, Pakistan and India.

His tally consists of 32 Test victims, 29 ODI scalps and one T20I wicket.

Moeen ended the year on a high with 18 wickets in the Test whitewash of Sri Lanka for his best tally in an away series.

Five of the top seven wicket-takers are spinners.

Moeen is now recharging his batteries before England return to action in January against the West Indies.

He is in the Test and ODI squad for the two-month tour to celebrate the fifth anniversary of first representing his country.

Moeen made his first England appearances in the Caribbean during the early party of 2014.

Callum Ferguson is gearing up for his first taste of T20 action since helping Worcestershire Rapids reach Vitality Blast finals day.

The County’s 2018 and 2019 capture last played in the short format of the game when hitting 64 not out for Rapids in the Blast quarter-final win over Gloucestershire.

It put the seal on a memorable Blast campaign for Ferguson before he returned Down Under to prepare for the domestic campaign with South Australia.

He scored 390 runs at an average of 48.75 for Rapids. Now Ferguson will again revert to T20 mode for the 2018-2019 Big Bash which gets under way in just under two weeks time.

He will again be playing for Sydney Thunder who will launch their campaign with two home matches.

They entertain Melbourne Stars on December 21 and then host Sydney Sixers on Christmas Eve.

Thunder will play 14 group matches as for the first time all teams will play each other home and away in an extended competition.

The top four will advance to the two semi-finals with the final on February 17.

Ollie Westbury played a key role for Grafton United in their four-wicket win over East Coast Bays in the Jeff Crowe Cup in Auckland.

The Worcestershire batsman was his side’s leading scorer in the opening three rounds of the Tom Hellaby competition with a 51 average.

This time he was second top scorer with 40 from 63 balls and featured in the crucial stand of Grafton’s successful pursuit of 170.

George Rhodes was out for 11 as Onslow lost by four wickets to Victoria University in a low-scoring Ewen Chatfield Trophy clash.

Ed Barnard’s Scarborough side lost out in the battle for first-innings points on day two of the Western Australia Cricket Association first-grade clash with visiting Claremont-Nedlands.