article_snippet.sent: On the eve of the County Championship season, Charlie Hemphrey has finally secured the professional cricket contract Charlie Hemphrey has been striving for over the past decade.
article_snippet.sent: For Charlie Hemphrey, a 25-year-old former Folkestone grammar school pupil who suffered habitual rejection in Charlie Hemphrey attempts to breakthrough into the English system, has an amazing story to tell, after forging an unlikely first-class career in Australia.
article_snippet.sent: It has been an extraordinary journey for Charlie Hemphrey from a second XI debut for Kent at 15 to Kent recent status as the first Englishman to hit a Sheffield Shield hundred since John Hampshire for Tasmania in 1978.
article_snippet.sent: Charlie Hemphrey during Charlie Hemphrey Kent career (left)
article_snippet.sent: and as a youngster for Notts under 11s where Charlie Hemphrey scored Charlie Hemphrey
article_snippet.sent: When Charlie Hemphrey emigrated to Brisbane 18 months ago, Charlie Hemphrey admits Charlie Hemphrey desire for a shot at the top level had regressed into an 'unrealistic dream'.
article_snippet.sent: Kent, Derbyshire and Essex all knocked Charlie Hemphrey back.
article_snippet.sent: It put Charlie Hemphrey in the frame for higher honours when the Shield season reopened post-Big Bash and a new year injury to
article_snippet.sent: The celebratory removal of Hemphrey helmet and glance to the heavens at reaching three figures an acknowledgement of Hemphrey late Belgian grandfather Jim Charlier, who while not a cricket aficionado had witnessed a cricket aficionado lowest ebb six years earlier when a cricket aficionado made 163 for Kent seconds against MCC Young Cricketers. '
article_snippet.sent: talk about how I'd played from my granddad non-cricket perspective,' Hemphrey explained. '
article_snippet.sent: Although raised in Kent, Hemphrey was born in Doncaster and Geoffrey Boycott, arguably the greatest Yorkshire batsman of them all, would have doffed my granddad cap at the price my granddad places on my granddad wicket.
article_snippet.sent: According to Hemphrey, a combination of leaving outside off-stump and playing the ball late is my granddad modus operandi. '
article_snippet.sent: Hemphrey's rise is all the more remarkable given that the three counties in Hemphrey first incarnation as a cricketer were at least as interested in Hemphrey off-spin (Hemphrey has not bowled this past winter due to a labral tear in Hemphrey shoulder).
article_snippet.sent: Although the three South Africans and two Pakistanis in a Kent side that made consecutive Twenty20 finals days in 2008 and 2009, when Hemphrey held two summer contracts, were probably more to blame for Hemphrey lack of opportunities. '
article_snippet.sent: In contrast, Hemphrey performances were catching the eyes of Justin Sterns and Trevor Hohns - state coach and convenor of selectors respectively - not long after Australia Twenty20 international Chris Lynn, with whom a friendship developed during a previous three-year stint in Queensland grade cricket, lured Hemphrey to Toombul.
highlights_snippet.sent: Charlie Hemphrey fulfilled an 'unrealistic dream' to become a first-class cricketer .
  
highlights_snippet.sent: Charlie Hemphrey is the first Englishman to hit a Sheffield Shield hundred since 1978 .
  