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 to Canterbury at the end of The Ford Trophy after his association granted him an early release from his coaching contract.
With Canterbury having qualified top for next Sunday's Grand Final in Wellington, his Canterbury side will be doubly motivated to send off mentor Fulton with a rare Ford Trophy threepeat of titles.
The past BLACKCAP 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 BLACKCAPS.
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Fulton has also been a batting coach for the BLACKCAPS in the past, and played 23 Tests, 49 ODIs and 12 T20is for the team as a composed and tall top order batter at international level.
He scored more than 10,000 runs in his overall first-class (red ball) career, including an unbeaten triple century for Canterbury - the highest score and only triple century for his team in the century-old Plunket Shield.
He retired as Canterbury's all-time top first-class runscorer by some distance with 8,719 runs, more than 2,000 clear of Michael Papps.
He also smashed the national record for fastest Ford Trophy century in the 2016/17 Ford Trophy Grand Final at Rangiora (50 balls) before Ross Taylor (49 balls) broke it more recently for the Central Stags.
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He 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 men's coach, Fulton has lifted the Plunket Shield once (in his first season coaching); The Ford Trophy three times (including back-to-back in the last two years) and frustratingly, finished as the beaten Super Smash Grand Finalist for six years straight with the Canterbury Kings, as the team is known in the T20 format.
"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 his role 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 Lord's.
Fulton in a statement said he was "delighted" to be joining them.
"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."
