David John BALCOMBE

Balcombe-Whites-Ball-Glamorgan-AgeasBowl-Marshall-4-208 “Balcs” is a right-arm fast-medium bowler and useful lower-order right-hand batsman.

He was born in London, had early links with Surrey and was spotted by Hampshire manager Giles White playing for Durham University for whom he played First-Class cricket in 2005.

He joined our staff and made his county debut v Kent in 2007.

He had problems with a back injury in 2010 and couldn't force his way into the First XI when fully fit in 2011.

However, a spell on loan at Kent did the world of good and Balcs took 33 wickets in five County Championship games at Canterbury, including four five-wicket hauls.

That prompted Sky Sports to mark Balcombe as one of the "ones to watch" for the 2012 season and, in the first match of that campaign (against Gloucestershire at the Ageas Bowl), Balcombe returned the best bowling figures ever recorded at the ground - 8-71 - beating Alan Mullally's previous best of 8-90 against Warwickshire in 2001.

In total, Balcs took 64 First Class wickets in 2012 and finished as Division Two’s top wicket-taker.

More:

-- See David's profile on ESPN CricInfo

-- See a list of matches and detailed statistcs for David on Cricket Archive

-- Research David's career achievements on Player Oracle