Peter Fulton to depart Canterbury role
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Canterbury's head coach Peter Fulton is heading offshore at the end of the month to take up a new full-time coaching challenge with English county Middlesex.
Fulton will bid farewell at the end of the Ford Trophy one-day competition after Canterbury granted him an early release from his coaching contract.
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With Canterbury having qualified top for Sunday's grand final in Wellington, his side will be doubly motivated to send off their mentor with a rare Ford Trophy three-peat.
The former Black Cap has been a lifelong Canterbury man as both a player and a coach on the domestic circuit, and packed an outstanding playing CV when he first segued into the Canterbury head coaching role, coming in after predecessor Gary Stead's appointment to the Black Caps.
Fulton has also been a batting coach for the Black Caps in the past, and played 23 tests, 49 ODIs and 12 T20is for New Zealand as a composed top-order batsman at international level.
He scored more than 10,000 runs in his first-class (red ball) career, incuding an unbeaten triple-century - the highest score and only triple-century for Canterbury in the century-old Plunket Shield.
He retired as Canterbury's all-time leading first-class runscorer by some distance, with 8719 runs, more than 2000 clear of Michael Papps.
He also smashed the then-fastest Ford Trophy century in the 2016-17 grand final at Rangiora (50 balls), before Ross Taylor (49 balls) broke it more recently for Central Districts.
Fulton finished with the second-highest number of one-day caps for Canterbury (behind only the immortal Chris Harris) and the outright record (121 caps) for most first-class appearances for Canterbury.
But you won't find "Fults" or "Two-Metre Peter" beating his chest about such achievements, with a steady, no-nonsense and team-first demeanour.
Under his six-year watch as Canterbury coach, Fulton has lifted the Plunket Shield once (in his first season coaching), the Ford Trophy three times (including back-to-back) and, frustratingly, finished as the beaten T20 Super Smash grand finalist for six straight years with the Canterbury Kings.
"We wish Fults and his family every success as they begin the next chapter of their journey in London, and extend our sincere thanks on behalf of all players, staff, and supporters for his outstanding contribution over the past six seasons," Canterbury Cricket said in a statement.
The 47-year-old joins Middlesex on a three-year contract ahead of the 2026 season as the replacement for Richard Johnson, who departed in June after a tough start to the club's campaigns in the County Championship's second division and T20 Blast.
Middlesex has since had an interim coach, and plays most of its home matches at the famed Lord's.
Fulton said he was "delighted" to be joining Middlesex.
"I have always followed County cricket and wanted an opportunity to be a part of it. The club has a rich history and I can't wait to arrive and get to work on building a cricket team of which the club and supporters can continue to be very proud of."