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Unlikely Bull on cusp of Shield glory

England-born batsman reflects on journey to Shield final after inauspicious start to career abroad

Among the two sets of team lists for Friday's Sheffield Shield final in Brisbane, there appears no more unlikely name than that of Charlie Hemphrey.

An oddity in itself to have a full-blooded Englishman playing first-class cricket in Australia, Hemphrey's case is all the more improbable given he was never quite able to reach the heights of county cricket in his native country – a competition deemed by most keen cricket observers (including Hemphrey himself) as inferior to Shield cricket.

Yet here he is – on a run of match-winning centuries in back-to-back matches, no less – about to play in Australia's most significant domestic contest.

For while the Big Bash steals the headlines, seasoned cricketers to a man will advise you there is no greater proving ground outside the Test match arena than the Sheffield Shield.

Not that Hemphrey's move to Australia was motivated by a desire to prove himself. Quite the opposite, in fact; after years of banging his head against the door of the County Championship – without ever quite managing to knock it down – he had all but given up on his ambition of playing first-class cricket.

Bulls, Tigers to resume Shield final rivalry

Hemphrey had spent time in Brisbane previously, struck up a friendship with Chris Lynn, and fallen in love with the climate and the relaxed nature of the city. So he moved to Nundah and was content playing Premier Cricket for neighbouring Toombul, while working for Virgin at the nearby Brisbane Airport.

"I wasn't really enjoying what was happening in England," he tells cricket.com.au.

"It wasn't cricket that brought me over here really, I just wanted to see the sun a bit more, enjoy the quality of life.

"(A cricket career) didn't happen for me over in the UK, which was a bit of a shame. I thought it had passed me by, especially with first-class cricket being tougher here than what it is in the UK."

But funny things happen when you score a bucket-load of runs, which is exactly what Hemphrey did. The right-hander had taken the pressure of himself by making cricket less of a priority in life, and by his own admission he was a natural late bloomer. It was a combination that worked wonders.

At 25, he made his first-class debut for Queensland. A month later, in March 2015, he underlined just what a rare commodity he was by becoming the first English-born player since Andrew Symonds in 1996 to make a Shield hundred.

All this only a short time after he had weighed up the possibility of heading back to Folkestone in England's south.

Hemphrey makes it consecutive hundreds

"I would've probably gone home," Hemphrey says. "But then I got the call to play, and I was eligible, so I decided to stay."

He made another hundred the following season but couldn't quite cement his place among some experienced heads and a crop of talented up-and-comers, and when he endured a forgettable 2016-17 summer (55 runs from eight innings), it looked as though his race may finally have been run … again.

But if Hemphrey's track record proves anything, it's that he's uninclined to take 'no' for an answer. He toiled hard in the off-season and returned a more complete batsman, and when Usman Khawaja was selected for the Ashes, he made 21 and 60 in his recall; they were the first steps to a repaying of the faith shown by the selectors, which to this point has culminated in those successive hundreds.

"I probably just took that few years longer than some to mature," he says. "Obviously I had a bit of a lull last year, but to come back and score some important runs is nice.

"I'm proud of what I've done but once you play Shield cricket you've really got to keep trying to stay one step ahead, because the bowlers you come up against, the different conditions around the country – it's tough."

Of course, Hemphrey's attention has now turned to Friday, when he and Matt Renshaw will become the first English-born players in a Shield final since Darren Pattinson, who played for Victoria eight years ago.

The 28-year-old also has the chance to join Renshaw this summer with a string of three Shield hundreds, and in the process become an unlikely Queensland hero.

"I can't wait to be part of it," he says. "We owe it to ourselves to play well and win this game, because we've been the best team by far in this competition."