Alleyne came to Nottinghamshire in 2004, having spent five years as understudy wicketkeeper with Middlesex, with the expectation that Notts keeper, Chris Read would have an extended England International career and be only available in odd snatches for County cricket. It is idle to speculate how Alleyne’s county career might have blossomed if this had indeed been the case.
Alleyne was destined to spend the next four years as understudy to Read. His appearances in Notts First Eleven were exceedingly sparse - Read did not miss a single competitive First Team match in 2007 - and Alleyne therefore decided that it was time to seek new pastures.
In 2006 Alleyne played in the second Championship game v Warwickshire at Trent Bridge and scored 57 and 109 not out – easily the highest score by a Notts batsman in both innings and his own career best. Later in the season he came back into the side first wicket down, purely as a batsman and hit 99 v Hampshire, but competition for the final batting place was fierce and he was against Will Smith or Samit Patel – or both.
In a total of 17 First-Class matches for Notts, Alleyne scored 701 runs, with that one century and four Fifties, at an average of 30.48; behind the stumps, he took 45 catches and four stumpings. He also played in List-A and a few early T20 games for Notss and Middlesex. In 2010, he represented Hertfordshire in Minor Counties competitions.
Alleyne had played some Grade cricket in Australia earlier in his career and emigrated there after leaving Nottinghamshire, playing in the Victoria Premier League for several seasons.
July 2020
Nottinghamshire First-Class Number: 577
See David Alleyne's career stats here