KENT opener David Fulton will be gunning for his second award in successive nights this evening when he heads the lists of candidates to win the club’s player of the season.

Last night the 29-year-old batsman from Lewisham became the first Kent cricketer to lift the coveted Players’ Player of The Year award at the prestigious Professional Cricketers’ Association dinner in London.

Having scored 1,892 first-class runs, including nine centuries, Fulton held off the challenge of Australian Darren Lehmann, Sussex batsman Richard Montgomerie and last season’s winner Martin Bicknell of Surrey to collect the Fleming Premier Banking Trophy.

Introduced in 1970, the award is voted for by all professionally contracted cricketers and Fulton now joins an illustrious list of winners that includes Brian Lara, Courtney Walsh, Graeme Hick, Richard Hadlee, Malcolm Marshall, Mike Procter, Zaheer Abbas and Lance Gibbs.

"Having stood at short leg and passed on the odd bit of advice to most of the players who were voting it is nice to know that they don’t all hate me," quipped Fulton, after winning the majority vote at last night’s Albert Hall event.

"On a serious note, it is the ultimate praise to be voted by your peers and, I suppose, a mark of respect. To be respected by them is the reason every player plays the game.

"It is the one award that a cricketer can earn and rightly stand up and say that they were the player of that year because the other people in contention for the prize were making the decisions.

"It is also the one award that does not necessarily go to the player with the biggest profile.

"As a county cricketer, you are continually judged by people who may know a lot about the game but, have never played it.In winning this award, it is nice to know that you are respected by those people who have played."

Fulton is also hot favourite to land the top honour at tonight’s Shepherd Neame Kent players’ dinner at the Court Street Brewery in Faversham.

Fulton’s only real contender for his own club’s award will be pace bowler Martin Saggers, who again bagged over 50 first-class wickets for the season in reaching a best ever personal tally of 64.

Kent captain Matthew Fleming will be in line to pick up one of the limited overs’ awards along with James Hockley and Queenslander Andrew Symonds, who flew home to Australia on Tuesday morning.