WORCESTERSHIRE are happy for Jack Shantry to play Grade cricket in Melbourne this winter despite the heavy summer workload of the left armer.

Shantry was a virtual everpresent in all competitions apart from being rested for a couple of Royal London One- Day Cup games.

He bowled nearly 500 overs in the LV= County Championship Division Two promotion campaign and picked up 56 wickets as well as scoring his maiden first-class century against Surrey.

But bowling coach Matt Mason is content for 26-yearold Shantry to “keep ticking over” Down Under.

He said: “Shants defied all logic. He has played every year now back-to-back and hasn’t missed a game through injury.

“It is testimony to his fitness and his commitment to his job that he has done the job he has this year.

“Now he is going to play Grade cricket in Melbourne and I don’t have a problem with him doing it because he is one of those bowlers who needs to keep ticking over.

“I think with Shants, if he stopped, it might be when he starts picking up niggles.

“He knows his game inside out. It is not like he has to do any remedial work here during the winter. Jack has done his pre-seasons over here and, at his age, what more can he do in a winter.

“He might as well go over there, have some good time off, relax and get himself in the right frame of mind to start another big campaign next year in the top-flight.”

Meanwhile, the Division Two top run-scorers’ list saw County skipper Daryl Mitchell finish runner-up to Hampshire’s James Vince with the duo scoring 1,525 and 1,334 respectively.

Third was Gloucestershire’s Alex Gidman with 1,277 prior to joining Worcestershire next season.