WHEN Dannie Rees sent a text to his captain predicting he would score a century and claim a five-fer, little did he know his prophecy would come true.

Not only did the 31-year-old Worcester Nomads player deliver, he ended up producing surely the best all-round performance in Worcestershire League history.

Rees wrote himself into the record books by scoring 137 and claiming a stunning 9-13 off 8.3 overs with his off-spin to crush basement boys Romsley and Hunnington by 171 runs in Division One.

It was made all the more remarkable given that Rees, by his own admission, has had a poor season and missed a month of the campaign away in Australia.

He might not even have bowled had regular spinner Steve Bowman not been absent along with seamer Liam O’Driscoll.

A delighted Rees, who wins a £30 Fearnley Factory Shop voucher for being this season’s last Worcester News player-of-the-week, said: “That is never going to happen again so it’s the highlight of my career.

“I sent a text to Ben Schiffmann (Nomads captain) the previous night and said I was going to score 100 runs and take five wickets and I wanted to open the batting. He said he would have to see and I came in at number three.”

Rees’ total, which included a giant fourth-wicket partnership of 210 runs with Jon Inglis (70 not out), saw Nomads declare on 270-4 after 42.5 overs.

At 70-1 in reply, and with the extra overs, it looked as though Romsley were in contention having seen off the new ball.

However, up stepped Rees and, aided by good fielding, he tore through their line-up as the hosts lost their remaining nine wickets for the addition of just 29 runs.

The all-rounder said: “I’d had a bad Bank Holiday weekend so I needed to shake out of it. It was the most focused I have been.

“It’s been a pretty poor year for me but the game is 90 per cent in the mind so I got my attitude right and scored some runs and the bowling came off as well.

“Ben brought a drink out to me when I was batting and said we were looking to get 250 and declare.

“His captaincy was on the mark and the decisions he made were fantastic. He knew Romsley had not chased down a total like that all season.

“It was one of the weakest teams we’ve put out this year and I was the fifth bowler to be used. Ben gave the youngsters a go first with the new ball and then called on me.

“We had all the fielders around the bat because it was popping everywhere. It was a good fielding display and some good wicketkeeping as well from Tom Mills.”