FORMER York City kingpin John Sharples has plundered a sensational hat-trick... with bat rather than boot.

The one-time City centre-back and skipper has hit three successive tons for Ovington Cricket Club in his first season back at the crease in more than a decade.

All three innings - 179 against Thixendale, 121 against Wilberfoss and 139 against Askham Bryan - saw Sharples carry his bat to send his averages in the Horwath Pulleyn-Heselton York Vale Cricket League soaring.

His bowling is not bad too. Sharples took 3-15 in the match against Thixendale and 4-10 against Wilberfoss having also taken 6-20 against Post Office.

Now working as a fitness instructor at the York Viking Moat House Hotel, in North Street, York, Sharples explained it was neighbour and Ovington skipper Dave Johnson who persuaded him to pick up the bat again.

As a youngster he played for Lancashire Schools between the ages of 13 and 15 before deciding to concentrate on his football career and a traineeship with Manchester United.

"I hadn't really played cricket for about ten years, apart from the odd game for my local team back in Bury but they can't have amounted to more than ten games in ten years," he said.

"I was not doing anything last year and I thought I just had to do something.

"I'm pretty competitive at whatever sport I am doing and playing for Ovington has got me back involved in the game and I guess I have just got my eye in.

"If you have got a good eye for the ball then that is something you never really lose as a cricketer."

Bought by then York City boss Alan Little for £70,000 from Ayr United in March 1996, Sharples was seen as the linchpin that would marshal the City defence into the new Millennium.

His shackling of the fearsome Duncan Ferguson during City's shock Coca-Cola Cup victory over Everton in 1996 earned Sharples the reputation of a centre-back with iron resolve.

However, after an 18 month battle - including radical knee surgery first pioneered in America for gridiron players and skiers - to try to save his career, Sharples was finally forced to call time in August 1998 at the age of 25.

Sharples' star-showing comes despite still being troubled by the knee injury that forced him to quit football so prematurely.

And while he confessed he was enjoying his return to the competitive arena, Sharples, now 27, ruled out the possibility of also making a return to the football field.

"Football is out of the question," he said.

"A few people have asked me to play but I cannot twist or turn and I could play at most for 30 minutes but then that would be it."

Sharples revealed he was invited down to play for Nationwide Conference outfit Telford during pre-season last year.

"I played about 40 minutes and I couldn't walk for a week," he said. "With the cricket, I am all right batting but after batting for so long and then standing around in the field it is sore when I come to bowling and the knee starts to swell.

"I shouldn't really bowl to be honest but I enjoy it and can just about manage a few overs."