One of the many young talents frustrated at the lack of cricket at the start of the 2020 summer was Joey Evison - the first player born in the 2000s to represent Nottinghamshire.
Evison is the most recent product of the Lincolnshire development pathway to represent Nottinghamshire, making his First-Class debut in 2019, scoring an assured 45 in his first innings in professional cricket.
The seam-bowling all-rounder also made his England Under-19 debut that summer and impressed with bat and ball in the winter tri-series in Antigua, equalling the fastest recorded 50 at U19 level against Sri Lanka in December; he reached that landmark off just 18 balls to equal Rishabh Pant's effort in the 2016 World Cup. In December 2019, he was named in England's squad for the 2020 Under-19 Cricket World Cup and was part of the squad throughout, making his highest international score, 57, in the Plate match at the end of the tournament.
Born Joseph David Michael Evison on 14 November 2001 in Peterborough, Joey was educated at Stamford School, where he made the first XI; he has subsequently played in the Lincolnshire Premier League and in 2017 he became one of the youngest centurions in Nottinghamshire Premier League history, scoring 113 for the Academy side against Attenborough.
Joey Evison's first full season was on 'hold' whilst the re-vamped inter-county competition, the Bob Willis Trophy, was played in the late summer of 2020. In the first game of that brief series, Evison gave a strong indication of his abilities, featuring in two fifty-plus stands in Notts first innings, scoring 38, and another in their second innings, when he made 31. He also took four wickets in the match and was one of the few Notts players to emerge from a disappointing defeat with some credit. A foot injury meant that he did not feature again that season.
Having been in and out of the first team in both white and red ball cricket, Joey started the 2022 season well, making 109 in the first game of the re-introduced County Championship. He couldn't match that in the next three matches and as the First XI line-up became settled, he went out on loan to Leicestershire where he made 12 and 0 in his one game. Towards the end of that season, Joey Evison declined a further contract with Notts and joined Kent - on loan for the remainder of 2022 but on a three year contract thereafter.
With the sort of ironic twist that sport delights in, Evison's return to Trent Bridge in Kent colours was a man-of-the-match performance in the final of the Royal London Cup v Lancashire. He made 97 and then chipped in with 2-34, incluidng cleaning bowling Liam Hurt to take the wicket that clinched the title.
September 2022
Nottinghamshire First-Class Number: 659