Ashes hero Prior gave KGV treat

YESTERDAY he wore a beard and a smile as wide as Sydney Harbour after hitting an exhilarating century in England's latest Ashes win in Sydney.

But just six years ago at Guernsey's version of the 'SCG', the King George V Field, Matt Prior took on a wholly different look as he donned the blue of Sussex in the end-of-season Barclays Twenty+ Challenge Cup match against Kent.

Here in 2004 Prior had a full head of blonde hair and instead of donning the keeper's gloves, churned out one very costly over of spin that his England team-mate Graham Swann might regard as rubbish and, had he seen it, tell the world so on Twitter.

As Kent's Mark Ealham took a fancy to Prior's part-time bowling it went for 28 runs.

But the KGV crowd did get to see the best of Prior that day and he came preciously close to adding another, albeit meaningless, century to his career list of tons. Opening the batting he smashed 99 from just 53 deliveries, including four sixes.

Thanks go to former umpire Dave Collen for reminding us of the Ashes hero's past presence in the island.