Malcolm Eldridge could be unique among Sussex cricketers.

The St Peters batsman is due to make his 1,000th appearance for the club in today's East Sussex League match away to Battle.

And Eldridge is asking if any other player in the county has reached such a milestone.

Unlike footballers, most cricketers tend to play for the same club - traditionally the village side - throughout their playing career.

But 1,000 appearances is still a tremendous achievement, particularly when Eldridge expects to continue playing for a good few years yet.

The 46-year-old said: "I play twice a week but it gets a bit harder to compete each year. The East Sussex League is quite a good standard.

"I still enjoy it and as long as I enjoy it I will keep playing.

"I have not heard of anybody else playing this amount of games but perhaps some clubs don't keep records like us."

It was by chance that Eldridge, who lives in Brighton, joined St Peters 30 years ago.

He explained: "I was playing in a muck-about game on the local green and this chap who played for St Peers said I should go along and have a go."

In his first game for the 3rd XI Eldridge scored 53 and he has never looked back.

Eldridge has only scored three centuries during those 30 years but he has hit 150 scores of 50 or more in a total of 20,115 runs for St Peters.

He said: "I am patient more than anything. I was a bit of a big hitter in my younger days.

"I have scored three fifties already this year but I am more of an accumulator of runs. I am not the flashing blade I used to be."

Eldridge, a chief engineer, rates his maiden century for the club as one of his highlights, although he does not remember the opposition.

He bowls occasional leg spin but is known primarily as an opening batsman.

A popular figure at St Peters, he said: "I have made all my friends through the club and that is why I have stayed. If I have stayed so long it can't be that bad.

"It is a good club. The atmosphere is very good and there are some decent people at the club.

"We were hoping to have my 1,000th game last Saturday as it was my birthday. Unfortunately, we have had a couple of games cancelled and it did not work out.

"I shall have a few beers this weekend."

Fixtures secretary and club statistician Andrew Dale said: "Malcolm's efforts in the field have become the stuff of legends and his reputation as a batsman is one of class, although sometimes he makes watching paint dry exciting.

"He is the complete batsman who on flat tracks around Sussex could easily have played a higher standard than he has."