Hard-hitting Paultons all-rounder Tony Richman wrote himself into cricketing folklore when he smashed six sixes in a single over in a Border League match at Bramshaw, writes MIKE VIMPANY.

Jamie Terris found himself on the receiving end as Richman hit 36 runs off the 15th and last over of the Paultons innings.

"We were struggling a bit at 82-7 with only six balls of the innings left, so I decided I ought to do something about it," smiled Richman, who lives in Salisbury Road, Totton.

The first ball found the middle of Richman's bat and landed in the middle of the adjoining golf fairway.

Terris, no mean hitter of the ball in his prime, fired his next delivery into Richman's legs - but the outcome was the same! "There was a short boundary on the pavilion leg side, so it was a fairly easy to flick the ball off my legs and over the wire fence," Richman said.

Ball three soared back over Terris's head on to Bramshaw's 344-yard 18th fairway, scattering a four-ball.

"I thought for one moment I was going to hit the golfers, but they dived for cover when one of the fielders screamed 'fore'," he added.

Richman, having taken Paultons' score to 100, took no credit for his fourth six. "It was an ugly cow shot," he confessed.

Ball five was a juicy full-toss, which Richman,

pictured, dumped over the fine-leg boundary.

Richman confessed that it never occurred to him that he was on the brink of cricket history.

"I didn't have time to think about it," he said. "I was just determined to hit Jamie's sixth ball as hard and as high as I could."

And he did - over square-leg's head for a record-equalling six which sent the Paultons total spiralling to 118-7.

Terris, meanwhile, took it all in good part. "All credit to Tony. There were some tremendous hits, but Bramshaw is an intimate ground," he said. "The disappointing thing was that he'd skied a big hit in my

previous over - and it landed just short of a fielder."

The only other local cricketer known to have hit six sixes in an over is Langley Manor's Kevin Cresswell, who performed the feat in a Southampton Evening League match at Mansel Park five years ago.

The unfortunate bowler was Andy Ford, who currently plays for Burridge.