Wellington's latest bowling discovery, the stripling medium pacer Iain O'Brien, will travel to England in the New Zealand off-season to harden the skills which have brought him 41 wickets in this season's Shell Trophy.

The wire thin O'Brien, who has featured prominently in every assessment of Wellington's success as a debutant this season and as their leading wicket-taker, will play in the Yorkshire leagues for New Farnley, a club based just outside Leeds.

O'Brien said he would be careful not to overdo things during the New Zealand winter. He is keen to continue his cricketing growth and knows he needs matchplay to do so but he is also determined to return for Wellington's next Trophy season fit and fresh and ready to consolidate this year's success.

O'Brien is an interesting study for a fast bowler. He stands only a little more than six feet three inches tall and bears more relation in physique to the Australian beanpole Bruce Reid than broad-shouldered men such as Collinge and Taylor who have preceded him at Wellington.

Yet, he is a relative dynamo - resistant to injury and apparently tireless. He is also one of those players, dearly beloved of captains, who simply cannot bowl enough, even on unresponsive wickets. There are days on dead tracks when experienced medium pacers, hiding in the outfield, try desperately to avoid the eye of their captains when a bowling change has to be made.

But O'Brien's enthusiasm is such he would almost wrestle his captain for the ball and he has become a rare and a valuable commodity - a dry-track bowlers who can take wickets where others can't.

O'Brien was plucked from his Petone-Riverside club team this season into the Wellington side for their match against Otago at Carisbrook and with a five-wicket bag in that match made himself almost immediately indispensible.

He went on to become a natural partner for Wellington's most-experienced quick, the similarly hard-working Andrew Penn, and he has revealed himself one of the singular successes of a successful season.

He still struggles to explain his success or to describe the feelings it creates.

"I've just had a great time this season, fantastic, a dream," he said. "I couldn't have asked for a better start.

"I guess there's been an element of hard work. I'm conscious of having worked hard for the last couple of seasons at club level in an effort to break into the side and it's definitely been hard work throughout the season. There's been a lot of bowling on pitches that haven't given us a lot of help.

"But I'm certainly not complaining. Just to get the opportunity to play, then to capitalise on it is just amazing.

"I'm just elated with 41 wickets. It's more than I could have dreamed of and I never ever thought I'd have that kind of success. I've just tried to bowl as much as I can and as well as I can and if I'm taking wickets I don't mind where I'm bowling.

"Originally my job was just to bowl maidens but that changed as the season went on. I was still trying to bowl maidens but I also had that wicket-taking option up my sleeve.

"A lot of the wickets we played didn't help bowlers and, in fact, the Basin Reserve pitches were probably the hardest of all. I took a lot of my wickets away from home. But in those situations I just tried to concentrate on my line and length, be patient and the rewards came."

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