WORCESTERSHIRE opener Daryl Mitchell is poised to join a select band next season.

The 33-year-old needs 118 more runs to complete 10,000 in first-class cricket for the County.

He will be the 25th County player to reach the five-figure mark in the club’s history.

Mitchell passed 10,000 career runs with two centuries in the County Championship against Northamptonshire last August.

But 402 of his current 10,284 tally were for other teams — 339 for Mountaineers in Zimbabwe and 63 for the MCC against Yorkshire in Abu Dhabi in 2015.

Badsey-born Mitchell’s current tally for the County stands at 9,882 at an average of nearly 40.

Mitchell is the latest in a long line of openers who have been key performers for the County.

The club’s record run scorer Don Kenyon, Glenn Turner, Tim Curtis, Ron Headley and Alan Ormrod all enjoyed success from the 1950s onwards and passed 10,000 runs.

Ex-chief executive David Leatherdale, who now holds a similar post with the Professional Cricketers’ Association, was the last to achieve the 10,000-run milestone.

WORCESTERSHIRE’S TOP RUN SCORERS

34,490 - D Kenyon, 31,149 - GA Hick, 22,298 - GM Turner, 21,753 - JA Ormrod, 20,918 - HHIH Gibbons, 20,750 - FL Bowley, 20,712 - RGA Headley, 20,155 - TS Curtis, 18,495 - FA Pearson, 17,953 - MJ Horton, 17,431 - PA Neale, 16,671 - G Dews, 15,843 - DW Richardson, 15,257 - LF Outschoorn, 15,100 - VS Solanki, 15,053 - HK Foster, 14,825 - EG Arnold, 14,120 - BL D’Oliveira, 13,300 - SJ Rhodes, 13,213 - E Cooper, 13,160 - TW Graveney, 12,800 - RG Broadbent, 10,538 - R Howorth, 10,017 - DA Leatherdale.

Meanwhile, former players turned out in force to celebrate the 90th birthday of Jean Kenyon, the widow of ex-Worcestershire captain Don.

Her family organised the surprise treat in the Don Kenyon Room (1865 Lounge).

Norman Gifford, Ormrod, Headley and former club chairman Duncan Fearnley attended.

They all played under Don who skippered Worcestershire to the 1964 and 1965 County Championship titles which were the first in the club’s history.

Current director of cricket Steve Rhodes was also at the party.

Brierley Hill-born Jean was married to Don in 1947 and they were together for 49 years until his death in 1996 at the age of 72.

She is still a keen follower of the County’s fortunes and regularly attends Worcestershire Cricket Society’s monthly meetings at New Road.

Don scored 37,002 first-class runs, played eight Tests for England and was one of the Wisden Cricketers of the Year in 1963.