Stockton and Hopgrove stalwart Nigel Collinson has finally joined the select band of York Vale League cricketers to have claimed 2,000 wickets.

Having been on 1,998 for almost a month, Collinson claimed one victim last week and reached the two grand milestone on Saturday with a single success during the three-wicket win over Thorpe Willoughby.

"Since (team-mate) Barry Sellers told me I was close to the mark, the wickets dried up," said Collinson.

"It's taken me a couple of matches, though I'm delighted to get it.

"How I only got one wicket on Saturday off 14 overs I don't know. You can bowl really well some weeks and get nothing then bowl not so well the next and get three or four wickets."

The 48-year-old had probably reached the landmark earlier but a number of club scorecards from years gone by had not been kept, with his wicket on Saturday officially being his 2,000th recorded success, his average at the beginning of the season being 12.76.

"I don't usually look at things like that or go rushing for the book every week. The guy who does our statistics - David Frost - is great and the figures are really interesting but I'm not normally one for statistics," he said.

"It's quite a staggering statistic in some respect but the simple stat does not show the pleasure I've had playing the game or the efforts of others who have helped, such as wicket-keepers."

Collinson, whose 18-year-old son Michael also bowls for the first team, joined the club in 1963 aged ten, made his first-team debut in 1966 and became a regular aged 17.

An all-rounder, he has taken 286 recorded catches and rattled up 6,575 recorded runs with the bat. He has recently been opening the innings for his side - though his glee at taking his 2,000th wicket was tempered by the fact he then scored his first duck of the season.

It was his feat with the ball, however, that made the day special.

"All my team-mates shook my hand after it, which was nice. Barry Sellers had told them all about it - not to put the pressure on, of course," said the right-arm medium-pacer.

"I always swing the ball a bit in the air. As you get older and with less pace, you use more variety. I try to throw in the odd slower ball, leg break, reverse swing - though it doesn't always work."

Updated: 09:04 Thursday, June 28, 2001