Toby rises again

You would have heard of the Toby jug, one of the normal pieces of tourist junk one picks up in Britain: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Toby_Jug

toby-jug

There is even a museum devoted to the Toby jug in Evanston, Illinois which is better known for the Kellogg B-school.

But you would not have heard of anyone called Toby (or even Tobias) in the past century or so, apart from characters in “West Wing” and “Thomas and Friends”

Until today. Middlesex won the County championship at the last gasp of the 2016 season. (Some countries such as India and Australia have a final match to decide the domestic champions. In England’s county championship, the winner is determined by points in a league system)  Note the scorecard of Yorkshire’s second innings:

http://www.espncricinfo.com/ci/engine/match/946945.html

Toby Roland-Jones (a nice old 19th-century English name) of Middlesex took 10 wickets in the match, including 6 in the second innings with a hat-trick to seal victory and the Championship title for his county.

http://www.espncricinfo.com/england/content/player/370535.html

He is so far on the fringes of England’s Test squad, but we may hear more of him in the future.

Update: he made his ODI debut against South Africa in mid-2017.