South Northumberland CC’s inaugural presentation night, involving every team within the club – juniors, ladies and senior teams – went off without a hitch on Saturday night. Hosted by Martin Speight and with Durham CCC’s Kyle Coetzer presenting the awards, the evening’s proceedings took barely an hour before Susan’s fantastic buffet was enjoyed by all.
Chairman Ian Gilthorpe welcoming speech set the tone for the evening before Martin Speight introduced the guest of honour, Kyle Coetzer. Kyle kindly agreed to a short question and answer session during which he talked about his involvement and enjoyment over the past three successful seasons at Durham, batting against Shane Warne in the 2007 Friends Provident Final and the brief but memorable T20 World Cup in which he represented Scotland. He also spoke about his days growing up in South Africa and the role models that he watched at that time.
After Kyle’s brief but interesting insight to his career Martin Speight invited the under 11 team managers, Ian Dinning, Tahseen Hasan, Howard Sidney-Wilmot and Diane Lawton to receive a small present as a token of the club’s appreciation for all their hard work during the season.
After this there was a brief review of the season, in which it was felt that the under 11 Red team had had a steady season of improvement, although arguably results were not as good as they would have expected given the quality of players – 4 selected for county, 1 for development squads next year. Early on in the season they lost in the cup to Tynemouth due to 5 run outs, but with great team spirit and work they turned it around and beat the same opposition later in the summer.
At the same time the under 11 blue team had enjoyed a really good year which saw them win all but one of their matches, a semi-final defeat to Tynemouth. This was a great effort for a team in which a minimum of 3 players were under 9 in every game, potentially laying the foundations for an exceptional team in 2 years time if they continue to be as dedicated as this year.
Kyle then presented the “Fielder of the Year” award to Rob Peyton, the “Batsman of the Year” award to Red’s captain Ben Parker who had not been dismissed all season, the “Bowler of the Year” to Max Lawton for his 6 wicket spell against Tynemouth in the semi final of the cup and the “Player of the Year” for his all-round performances to Kieran Wood.
Moving swiftly on, the under 13 managers John Ruddick, Stewart Davidson and Jon Hatcher were presented with their gifts before Martin Speight summarized their season as one of success and future promise, particularly highlighting the Northumberland Cup Final against the highly rated Newcastle City in which the Red team amazingly defended 72 to win. In addition Jon Hatcher’s under 13 blue team only lost 2 matches to teams from other clubs, finishing fourth in the Northumberland league above Stocksfield, Ashington, Benwell Hill and Backworth, whilst the under13 green team also managed to win half of their games and throughout the summer 30 players represented the side.
After Jack Hearn and Liam Cosgrove had received the “Batsman” and “Bowler of the Year” awards respectively, Captain Oliver Young was presented with the NEPL under 13 shield and the “Player of the Year” award for his all round performances and excellent captaincy.
Once under 15 / development team manager Paul Carding had received his bottle of wine –Ian Kelsall and Peter Shotton were absent – Martin Speight explained that the main aim this year was the development of young players by offering them more opportunities to play mens cricket and this was achieved through the midweek development team and introducing another 3rd team at the weekend, playing in the second division of the West Tyne League.
The value of playing mens cricket has been evident as the under 15s won the NEPL Shield for the first time in seven years, after beating hot favourites Chester le Street in the group stage before beating Tynemouth in the final despite the absence of arguably three of the best cricketers. Moreover many of the under 15s played in the various third teams that did exceptionally well. In addition to coming second in Division three of the NEPL, the Saturday third team beat Prudhoe in the West Tyne League Cup final early in the season and coming into the last game of the season were 1 point behind Prudhoe. Whilst Prudhoe beat Wylam they did not bowl them out and so did not pick up the extra 2 bonus points for a complete win whilst we did, thus lifting the trophy by a mere 1 point!
Kyle Coetzer invited Michael Harbottle to come up to the stage to receive his gift as the under 18s team manager, the West Tyne League Cup and League Trophies, and the award for the “Manager of the Year” after his sterling services running both the eighteens and Saturday thirds.
Under 15s captain Adam Pearson was presented with the NEPL shield and an award for the “Bowler of the Year” for his match winning spell of 4 for 17 in the final, whilst Andrew Doig was the “Batsman of the Year” after his man of the match performances against Chester le Street and Tynemouth, and Allan Davidson was voted the “Player of the Year” after taking over 80 wickets in under 15 and third team cricket this year.
Allan also picked up the 3rd team “Player of the Year” award, whilst Tom Gallgher (under 18 Player of the Year), Jack Jessop (3rd team Batsman of the Year) and Richard Clifford (3rd team Bowler of the Year) were the other winners.
The final ward in the junior section went to Intisaar Fazal as the “Most Improved Cricketer of the Year”. Despite strong competition from Adam Pearson, Andrew Doig and Owen Hollins, Intisaar pipped it for his 589 third team runs in all third team cricket.
The Ladies once again have had a very successful year with the first team winning the Northumberland Ladies Midweek League Cup for the fourth consecutive year. The seconds also performed very well coming fourth in the same league. Unfortunately stiffer tests for the ladies teams, in the form of the longer Premier League matches, failed to materialize.
After Naomi Peck had been presented with the Northumberland Ladies Midweek Cup and the First team “Bowler of the Year” award, Hayley Falla picked up the First team “Batsman of the Year” award. Roshi Ali (Second team Bowler of the Year) and Rachel Mayne (Second team batsman of the Year and Most Improved Cricketer) were unable to receive their awards and these will be forwarded on. The “Player of the Year” award went to Kendal Spark for, as Vicky Threadgold herself said “For being the best 2nd Team allrounder, great at batting, bowling, catching and even happy to be wicket keeper”.
The final ladies award, “The Player’s Player of the Year”, voted by all the ladies, went to Vicky Threadgold for “running the Second team and in Naomi’s absence during the second half of the summer organising the First team”
The Mens Second team victory in the NEPL was arguably the most surprising result of the season given the strength of Chester le Street and the introduction of at least four junior cricketers for every match. At the beginning of the season a top five finish would have been pleasing but to win was a massive achievement and all the players are to be congratulated.
The “Bowler of the Year” award went to left arm spinner Chris Campbell, who narrowly pipped Iftikhaar Fazal – 41 wickets to 40 – whilst Howard Sidney-Wilmot picked up both the “Batsman of the Year” for his 801 league runs at an average of 50.1 including ten half centuries, and the “Player of the Year” award.
Whilst Tom Seymour was presented with the NEPL Cup, First team captain John Graham was presented with the Banks Salver. After Tom had talked about the progress made by the juniors within the club, John, for the first time in seven years, was left to contemplate a season of little success whilst looking forward to putting it right next year.
Adam Heather and Stephen Humble were awarded joint “Players of the Year” awards whilst Adam also received the ironic Fielder award. After this the final two awards, “The Champagne Moment” and “Team of the Year” were presented to Iftikhaar Fazal for his best ever second division bowling figures of 8 for 11 against Gateshead Fell and the Saturday third team respectively.
Ian Gilthorpe finished the formal proceedings off thanking the staff before everyone helped themselves to the fantastic buffet that Susan and Dorothy had laid on. The evening had gone well and hopefully this event will now become an established part of the South North calendar. Congratulations to all the awards winners and here’s to next year!