Walter Lawrence Trophy for Napier

Graham Napier blasted 152 off 58 balls against Sussex

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Essex's Graham Napier, who smashed a 44-ball century against Sussex at Chelmsford on June 24, is the winner of the 2008 Walter Lawrence Trophy for the season's fastest hundred.

For the first time in its 74-year history the trophy was made open to all domestic county competitions this season, alongside those scored in the LV County Championship and Tests in England, so Napier becomes the first winner of the trophy with a limited-over innings.

Napier, whose hundred included nine sixes and nine fours, finished his extraordinary innings with a Twenty20 Cup record highest-score of 152 not out, off just 58 balls. The 28-year-old all-rounder thundered no fewer than 16 sixes - a world Twenty20 record - and 10 fours during his knock.

A product of the Essex youth system and a member of England's 1998 Under-19 World Cup winning squad, Napier will be presented with the Walter Lawrence Trophy and a cheque for £5,000 at a special dinner in the Long Room at Lord's on October 15.

At the dinner, Akbar Ansari, the 20-year-old Cambridge University all-rounder, will be presented with the 2008 Walter Lawrence Trophy award for the highest-scoring batsman from the six MCC Universities.

His 193, scored against Oxford University in the Varsity match at The Parks on July 3, is the highest score in an innings played against one of the other five University Centres of Cricketing Excellence or against one of the first-class counties this season.

Ansari will become the third recipient of a silver medallion and a prize of £1,000.