ALTON off-spinner Julian Ballinger wrote himself into the Southern Premier League annals by capturing his 500th wicket.

Only Dan Goldstraw, Sarisbury Athletic’s former Totton & Eling left-armer, has taken more SPL wickets.

Ballinger reached his personal milestone when he dismissed Lymington’s Dominic Hand for a duck before the Premier Division match against the New Forest visitors to the Jubilee Ground was abandoned in mid-afternoon due to heavy rain.

Hand, sharply taken one-handed by Michael Heffernan at slip, was the veteran spinner’s 37th victim of the season in which he has taken five wickets on four separate occasions.

Ballinger has 20 five-wicket hauls in his Southern Premier League career, during which time he has twice been the Premier Division’s top wicket- taker.

A competitive and proud Welshman, he made his Alton debut back in 1995 as a top-order batsman, but since the formation of the SPL he has applied his trade as an off-spin bowler. His consistency has seen him high up in the league wicket-taking tables year on year.