Club player smashes six sixes in successive overs

After a first-ball wide, two successive sixes took him to a 23-ball fifty. Four more maximums followed, including a no-ball, which allowed him to run a single off the final ball of the over and keep the strike.

Gretton collected four sixes off the first four legal balls of the 11th over to cap a 36-ball century, before dispatching the remaining two balls over the rope to complete the incredible batting feat.

His 150 was brought up in 49 balls, with a 19th six, before he was bowled two balls later.

Yet in all the chaos, Gretton had no idea he had hit six sixes in one over, let alone two, until he was told by a team-mate that evening.

"There was a wide and a no-ball, and then we lost quite a few balls - there was a couple on the Matalan roof and quite a few in the car park as well," said Gretton.

"They had to go and retrieve them, so that over took ages and that's why it didn't even come to mind what had gone on."

West Indies legendary all-rounder Garfield Sobers was the first player to hit six sixes in an over in first-class cricket - for Nottinghamshire in 1968. Glamorgan's Malcolm Nash was the unfortunate bowler.

The feat has been repeated but is extremely rare - and to do so in successive overs might be a first.

"I've heard rumours that no-one's done it before," added Gretton, who will next play for a Bob Willis XI, in Essex on Sunday.

"It's a bit surreal really, for a little club in Staffordshire to have that going on."