Northamptonshire County Cricket Club has announced that Rob Newton has extended his stay at the club until at least the end of the 2020 season.

Newton is the third of the club’s established players to have put pen to paper on new contracts this winter, following in the footsteps of Alex Wakely and Nathan Buck as Northamptonshire builds towards the 2019 Specsavers County Championship, Royal London One-Day Cup and Vitality Blast campaigns.

The 29-year-old batsman has played his entire professional career at the County Ground and is closing in on a century of First Class appearances, and his talent has long been obvious to the Wantage Road faithful ever since averaging 44 in the 2012 and over 50 in the 2016 Championship seasons.

In all Newton has scored 5,161 First Class runs at an average of 36.60, including 13 centuries, 23 fifties and a high score of 202 not out. He has also contributed in the other formats of the sport, too, scoring over 1,000 runs in One-Day cricket with an average nudging 30 and having a strike rate in excess of 100 in T20.

Head coach David Ripley says that Newton is an important part of the side and is delighted that he has agreed to stay at the County Ground.

“Rob is a talented player who has shown his quality repeatedly with important runs at crucial times,” he said. “He’s been at the County Ground for a long time, so it is easy to forget that he is still under 30 and has a lot of cricket still ahead of him in his career. He’s both settled and ambitious, which is a good combination to have, and we’re really happy that he has signed a new contract with us.”

“Signing a new contract was an easy decision to make and I’m thankful to Rips [David Ripley] for giving me the opportunity to stay at the County Ground,” Newton commented. “We’ve had a lot of good times here and I’m confident that we’ve got an exciting season ahead of us. The squad is working hard in training, we’ve made some good signings, and the mood is really positive.

“I had a frustrating 2018 and want to prove myself again in 2019, and I’m determined to help us have a good year.”

Season Tickets remain available for the 2019 season, with a variety of packages on sale. Book before January 31 and claim Early Bird prices to save around 15 percent compared to the standard prices! More information is at www.northantscricket.com/season-tickets