Somerset County Cricket Club have confirmed that long serving all rounder Graham Rose is retiring from the first class game at the end of this season.

All rounder Rose, who is thirty eight years old joined the Cidermen in 1987 and since then has appeared in nearly 250 first class matches for the county, scoring over 8500 runs and taking almost 600 wickets. He has also made many invaluable contributions in limited overs matches for the county.

In his benefit year of 1997 he enjoyed probably his best season for the county and was voted All Rounder of the Year after scoring 852 runs and taking and 63 wickets, and in many peoples eyes was unlucky not to receive international recognition.

Earlier this week Somerset Chief Executive Peter Anderson paid tribute to the veteran all rounder when he told me: "Graham has a wonderful first class playing record and was a dedicated professional, a fine example to all those around him. Having played most of his cricket in the second eleven for the last two seasons his enthusiasm and dedication to the game did not diminish, and if young players wanted to know how to conduct themselves all they had to do was to look at him."

Mr Anderson continued: "In his pomp he was the leading English all rounder and quite why he never got a One Day England cap is quite unbelievable. At that time the selectors never looked west."

He concluded: "On a personal level Graham was always a thorough gentleman to deal with and never indulged in the silliness that goes on now. He will be a credit to any profession he chooses to follow and we wish him and his family all the luck in the world for their future."

Right to the end the all rounder has remained totally involved in the club and on Monday he played in the Minehead CC side that won the Rob Turner Benefit six a side tournament, and later on in the week was still busy training with the youngsters from the second eleven.

© SOMERSET