Cancer surviving Wolverhampton cricketer Tom Fell signs two-year-deal with Worcestershire

Fell had one full year remaining of his existing deal but has put pen to paper at New Road until the end of the 2019 campaign.

Fell is one of Worcestershire's brightest prospects and in 2015 scored 1,000 plus County Championship runs in Division One including a hundred against champions Yorkshire.

The former Oakham School pupil then bravely battled through two bouts of cancer before getting the all clear half-way through last season and announcing his return with an emotional hundred against Lancashire in the Royal London One-Day Cup.

Fell has encountered a challenging start to the 2017 campaign but is confident he is "one score away from things falling into place again" in the same way as with Joe Clarke and his two hundreds versus Kent.

Director Of Cricket Steve Rhodes is delighted to have secured Fell's services for another two years.

"Securing our better players is something we are always desperate to do." he said.

"Although at this present stage (of this season) Tom has been in and out of the team, he is a quality cricketer who is very much part of our future.

"I'm delighted that he has signed. We all know his quality from when he got 1,000 runs in Division One only two years ago and the type of character he is with the way he battled against cancer."

Fell said: "It's nice to be able to commit myself to the club for another year on top of what I had left. It's exciting times for the club and it's good to know I'm going to be part of that.

"We are definitely heading in the right direction. A lot of guys we spoke about in the past as being 'young' and with 'potential' are starting to come good now.

"You can see that with the results. We had a successful Royal London One-Day Cup competition and we are going well in the Specsavers County Championship as well.

"It is a good time to be at the club and I think the future definitely looks good and it's nice to know I'm going to be a part of that future and hopefully keep taking the club forward.

"It's been quite a tough season for myself personally. It's one of those things. Hopefully I'm just one score away and it should all fall into place again."

Hillingdon-born Fell, who made his first class debut for Oxford MCCU four years ago, has scored 2,867 first class runs at an average of 33.72 with fine centuries and 12 fifties.

In List A cricket, Fell has totalled to date 1,033 runs at 38.25 with one century and nine fifties from 31 innings.

Last summer he won the MCC Spirit of Cricket award after signalling his foot had touched the rope when trying to stop a boundary in the Specsavers County Championship match with Sussex at Hove.

Fell's turned out in the past for Wolverhampton in the Birmingham League, he underwent surgery after first being diagnosed with cancer in 2015, at just 22 years of age.