A hard hitting opening batsman of the seventies and eighties, Wayne 'Ned' Larkins terrorised county attacks for Northamptonshire and Durham throughout his long career. Strangely ignored by the England selectors at his peak, Larkins enjoyed a brief Indian summer as Graham Gooch's opening partner on tours of Australia and the West Indies.

Born in 1953, Larkins played for Northamptonshire from 1972 - 1991 as part of a powerful batting line up which boasted Peter Willey , Alan Lamb and opening partner Geoff Cook . Larkins moved to first class newcomers Durham in 1992, retiring from the first class game in 1995.

He scored 27,142 first class runs in 482 matches with 59 centuries and a highest score of 252. He also snared 42 wickets with his canny medium pace. Larkins appeared in 13 test matches for England, scoring 3 fifties, and in 25 one day internationals. He was a dominant force in domestic one day cricket, playing 485 matches and scoring 13,594 runs with 26 hundreds.

A massively talented player, Larkins is considered by many good judges as something of an underachiever in statistical terms. Able to destroy the finest of attacks on his day, and unafraid to hit his first ball for six over cover, many less gifted players have scored many more test runs. Instantly recognisable from his mop of curly hair, Larkins was never less than a thrilling presence at the crease and English cricket was the poorer during his long absences from the test match team. Larkins had the potential to be England's Gordon Greenwich and, despite his sterling service to his counties, remains one of the lost stars of the English game.