Craig Spearman is to return to Central Districts next season, 18 months after announcing his retirement.

Spearman said he was finished with first-class cricket when travelling to England after the highly-successful CD summer of 2000/01.

But since then he has started playing for Gloucestershire, with great success in the County Championship, under the coaching eye of New Zealander John Bracewell.

In six county championship matches to date he has scored 460 runs at 38.30, including two centuries and three 50s while in the Benson and Hedges Cup competition he scored 138 runs at 23.00 but most importantly, had a strike rate of 101.47.

CD chief executive Blair Furlong said that while Spearman said he had retired from cricket when leaving CD, he then signed for Gloucestershire.

"I approached him and asked him if he was coming home during the summer would he like to play the State Shield games for us. He said he would think about it and then came back and said, why didn't he play the whole season for us?

"We settled it last week. It will be like having the old firm back together as Greg Loveridge has come back from South Africa and has said that he would like to have another lick at cricket here," Furlong said.

He said Spearman was expected in late-September, early-October.

"It's good news for us. Our batting was pretty ordinary in lots of games last season and his being here will make a difference to the top of the order," Furlong said.

Central Districts have just named their winter squad. It is: Jacob Oram, Glen Sulzberger, Peter Ingram, Jamie How, Michael Mason, Gareth West, Greg Loveridge, Bevan Griggs (Manawatu); David Kelly, Lance Hamilton, Taraia Robin, Campbell Furlong, Peter McGlashan (Hawke's Bay); Mathew Sinclair (Horowhenua-Kapiti); Greg Todd (Wairarapa); Ewen Thompson, Andrew Schwass (Nelson); Tim Anderson, David Good (Taranaki); Brent Hefford (Marlborough).

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