BOWLER Steve Barnes thought his chances of notching a hat-trick had long gone after 35 years without one.

But just as he was resigned to hanging up his whites without achieving the feat, like the proverbial London bus, along came two in two matches.

Barnes, who has played for North-East Durham League Division One side Simonside - the club his 75-year-old father John founded in 1950 - for 35 years, took three wickets against Coundon on June 5 in a haul of 4-28 and repeated the achievement seven days later while taking 7-18 against Kelloe.

It was enough for him to win The Northern Echo Cricketer of the Month Award, sponsored by cricket equipment and trophy Mike Gough Sports of Hartlepool, for June.

"I started playing for Simonside when I was 14. My father was the founder member and he has played there since 1950," said the 49-year-old, a teacher at Hermitage School in Chester-le-Street.

"I have pictures of me in a pram watching him so I have just carried it on.

"You get loyal to a club and I have never felt the need to move anywhere else."

Club chairman Barnes, ironically sidelined after picking up an injury in the second of his hat-trick games, started life as a batsman but was later converted to a bowler and although there have been several momentous occasions two things have always eluded him.

"There have been lots of highlights, I have played in finals and have been man of the match before but I guess, when you start playing, the two things that you aim for are to score 100 and to get a hat-trick.

"I never got anywhere near getting 100 and I had really given up on getting a hat-trick," said Barnes.

However, one of those facts changed last month.

"I have probably been on one a dozen times and it has never happened," Barnes said.

"To get one was unbelievable and then for it to happen again the next week was surreal.

"The last time I had the chance I remember hitting the guy in the pads and I thought it was absolutely plumb. When that happened I thought to myself it's never going to happen."

The opening hat-trick against Coundon came at a very opportune time.

"The game was drifting away from us. We had got 193 which was a really good score on that track and had them 120-odd for six and they got within 19 of winning with four wickets in hand," he said.

"I came back on for my second spell and took three wickets with the first three balls of that over.

"That transformed the game from them wanting 19 with four wickets in hand, to 19 with one wicket in hand and we finished them off in the next over."

Seven days later and it was the turn of Kelloe to suffer at the hands of Barnes. "They got off to a flyer and were 50-1 and I was a bit disappointed I wasn't on earlier as I had bowled well the last week," he said.

"The first over I went for eight and I thought 'these guys are set'.

"Then all of a sudden the ball started moving around and it was as good as I had bowled for years. I remember the first one swung from outside off stump and hit midland leg and the second ball was exactly the same. My mindset was - ball three: just bowl the same one again.

"I did that but remember seeing the guy's bat come down and thinking it hasn't bowled him. But it still swung and hit the inside edge and I had a man at short leg. The ball was up in the air and it took ages to come down but he caught it."

To put a slight dampener on things the hat-trick ball proved to be the last one Barnes has bowled this season.

After coming back from a two-year lay-off with a bad back, he now finds himself sidelined again.

"I tore my Achilles tendon and I haven't bowled since," he said, adding he was unsure whether he would get back again this year. "I was told three to six weeks but it's looking unlikely. I hope I am going to play in August but it's a real frustration to get to that level and now I'm having to watch. It's hard, it's really hard.

"You hear people say finish on a high, but I always think you should finish when your finished but I'm not going to think of that."