Paul Jacob Christopher Hoffmann, is an Australian cricketer who has played for the cricket teams of Scotland. He is a right-handed batsman and right-arm medium-fast bowler.
As a youngster, Hoffmann competed as a woodchopper, following in his father's footsteps. However at the age of 12, while chopping barefoot, he slipped and removed the tip of his left big toe. Following this horrific event Paul never regained his technique and turned to cricket to fill the void. After playing for the Australian Country team against the West Indies in 1993 and for Manly in Sydney, he emigrated to Scotland in 1997, first playing for the Uddingston club as an overseas professional. He liked it so much that he stayed on and played as an amateur. As of the end of the 2007 season, he was the leading wicket taker in the history of the Scottish National League with 282 wickets. He qualified by residence to play for Scotland in 2001, making his début in a match against an England Amateur team on 14 August 2001 taking five wickets. He has since gone on to play for Scotland on 119 occasions. This includes fifteen One Day Internationals, his first match of that type coming against Pakistan in June 2006. Taking 3 for 22 off his 10 overs including Younis Khan. Paul played for Scotland in their winning 2005 ICC Trophy campaign and was the top wicket-taker in the tournament with 17 wickets. This included taking 6 wickets for 12 runs against Oman, a record for Scotland in ICC Trophy competition. In the 2007 World Cricket League tournament in Kenya he bowled Scotland to victory over Netherlands with a heroic last over taking 2 wickets in 3 balls for 0 runs with a run out accounting for the 2nd wicket of the 3 that fell in the over. A hard hitting batsman, Hoffmann holds the record for the fastest century in Scottish National Leaguecricket history, smashing 100 off 35 balls for his club Uddingston in May 2005. He was an important member of the Scottish Saltirescricket team and was part of their squad for the Cricket World Cup in March 2007. Hoffmann retired in August 2007, returning typically miserly figures of 9 overs for 43 in his final game against India at Glasgow. Hoffmann was an English teacher working for Trinity High School but now works for Duncanrig Secondary School in South Lanarkshire.
