Former Upminster all-rounder Beau Webster looks set to make his Test debut next week, having been called into the Australia squad for the second match of the series against India in Adelaide. Should Webster make the final eleven it will cap a remarkable last 18 months for the Tasmanian. When Beau signed for Upminster at the start of the 2023 season, he was relatively unknown in the UK to those who were not close followers of Australia’s Big Bash League. However, after an excellent start to the season in RM14 the 30-year-old was snapped up by Essex for their One Day Cup campaign, where he impressed with bat and ball. Webster then followed this up with a remarkable 2023/2024 season for Tasmania in Australia’s Sheffield Shield competition (Australia’s equivalent of the County Championship). He scored 938 runs, claimed 30 wickets and was voted Shield Player of the Season as his Tasmania side went all the way to the Grand Final before losing out to Western Australia. Webster returned to the UK in 2024, this time to spend the summer with Gloucestershire, where he played in the County Championship and the Vitality Blast, helping his new county to reach Blast Finals Day, where they scooped the trophy despite the Australian not being available for the showpiece event. Back in Australia this “winter” Beau has continued his form of recent years, making more than 300 runs and claiming nine wickets so far, to help keep Tasmania in contention for another Grand Final appearance.

Of course, should Beau make his test debut next week he will not be the first ex-UCC player to go on and play in the ultimate format of the game for his country. In 1999, Zimbabwean Dion Ebrahim came to Upminster as the club’s first overseas player of the Shepherd Neame Essex League era (now the Hamro Foundation Essex League). Dion was just 18 when he came to Upminster, and he proved a hit on and off the pitch as his runs and wickets helped the 1st XI to secure promotion in their very first season in the league. Less than two years after returning home from his stint with the club Dion was making his Test debut, lining up for Zimbabwe against Bangladesh, and in 2003 he made two half centuries for his country during their Test series in England, including one at Lords. Dion finished his Test career with more than 1,200 runs from 29 matches, including a highest score of 94, while he also played 82 ODIs for his country making a brilliant 121 against Bangladesh in November 2001.

12 years later and a 20-year-old called Jimmy Neesham arrived in Upminster from Auckland, New Zealand. At that time Jimmy had just begun his domestic first-class career with Auckland, but hadn’t at that stage broken through into the New Zealand set-up. He enjoyed a very productive season with the club, scoring over 1,000 league and cup runs, claiming more than 40 wickets and helping to keep the club sponsors of the time very happy!! The 1st XI just missed out on promotion that year, but did reach the League Cup Final, although Jimmy unfortunately missed the defeat to Shenfield as he had flown back to New Zealand. Before the 2011/12 domestic season in New Zealand Neesham moved from Auckland to Otago, and the move paid dividends as he put in a number of impressive performances which caught the eye of the National selectors. It wasn’t long before the hard-hitting left-hander was making his T20 and ODI debuts for his country, both against South Africa, and in 2014 he made his Test debut against India, making a century on his debut (his 127 being the highest ever score by a number eight on Test debut). He followed this up with another record in the second test, becoming the first New Zealander to make centuries in his first two Test matches (with a knock of 137*), and was at the other end for much of Brendan McCullum’s record-breaking knock of 302. Jimmy’s Test career spanned 12 matches in total, scoring more than 700 runs and taking 14 wickets, but it was in white ball cricket that he went on to become one of the biggest names in the sport, his services much sought after by franchises all over the world, including sides in The Hundred, The Big Bash and The IPL (and a little bit closer to UCC with Essex). It was though the 50-over World Cup Final on a grey day at Lords in 2019 which very nearly turned Jimmy into a national hero in New Zealand. When the former Upminster man struck the second legal ball of Jofra Archer’s “super-over” into the Mound Stand for a huge maximum it looked like he was about to take his side to the biggest prize in the sport, but England just about held their nerve to claim a first World Cup.

Two further former UCC overseas players also played men’s international cricket, but this was before their time in the blue and gold. Doug Hondo came to the club in 2007, and his wickets helped secure the 1st XI promotion to the Premier Division for the first tine in their history. Prior to spending the season running in at Upminster Park Doug had enjoyed an international career with Zimbabwe which consisted of nine Test matches and 56 ODIs. In more recent times the club have been lucky to have the services of Jon-Jon Smuts (for the 2022 and 2024 seasons). “JJ” may not have played Test cricket for his native South Africa, but he did play six ODIs and 13 T20 Internationals for The Proteas. Smuts enjoyed two hugely successful seasons with the club, his phenomenal batting in the 2024 season nearly leading the 1st XI back to the Premier Division.

Two of our former women’s players have also previously made names for themselves on the international stage. Our 2024 overseas star Sunette Viljoen-Louw, who scored more than 1,000 runs for the club last summer, played in one Test match and 17 ODIs for the South African women’s side between 2000 and 2002. On top of this “Suni” also competed in the Javelin at FOUR Olympic games, claiming an amazing silver medal at Rio in 2016. A bit closer to home and Upminster’s Beth Langston, who began her cricketing journey at the club, went on to play four ODIs and two T20 Internationals for England. Beth was a member of the 2017 World Cup winning squad and has recently signed a two-year deal with Yorkshire where she will be an integral part of their squad for the first ever season of Women’s Tier 1 County Cricket in 2025. Beth and her family are still great friends of UCC, her father John is a long-standing Vice-President of the club, and everyone at Upminster is immensely proud of Beth’s achievements.

Everyone at the club is lucky to have seen these international stars take to the field at Upminster Park, and enjoy a drink and chat at the bar with them along the way, and we wish Beau and his Australian team mates the best of luck for the rest of the series (well, not to much).