Wiltshire Cricket Awards Evening celebrates the successes of 2019!

The Ceres Hall in Devizes was the venue for the 2019 Wiltshire Cricket Awards evening; a wonderful event in the Wiltshire Cricket calendar that brings together people from all different aspects of Wiltshire Cricket to recognise their achievements and contributions in one big celebration of all that is good with cricket in the county.

Individual Performance Awards:

The evening started with individual performance awards being presented for performances in North v South district matches and/or county age group matches. Winners of these awards were:

OSCAs:

A big part of our awards evening is recognising volunteers whom the game simply couldnt do without. The OSCAs stand for Outstanding Services to Cricket Awards and at the awards evening we awarded five winners OSCAs but also recognised a wider group of volunteers. The winners in each category will go to the national event at Lord's on 14th October.

Young Volunteer (14-18 years old)

• Winner - Luke Pearce
• Recognised - Theo Todhunter

Young Volunteer (19-25 years old)

• Winner - Thomas Stoner
• Recognised - Oliver Sutton

Heartbeat of Club

• Winner - Sarah Aubrey
• Recognised - Andy Langan

Pro-active Leadership

• Winner - Barry Reed and David Malley
• Recognised - Chris Edes

Lifetime Achiever

• Winner - Joe Gardner
• Recognised - Martin Butler
• Recognised - Martin and Rose Stennings

District Cricket:

District Cricket in Wiltshire is an important part of our player pathway. In 2019, we ran coaching programmes at under 11s, 13s and 15s with summer competition then including festivals for u11s and 13s and also league competitions for under 11s and a North v South series at under 15s.

At the awards evening, the teams from our various competitions were recognised and presented with medals:

District Festival Winners:

• Under 11s - Mid Wilts
• Under 13s - North West

District League Winners:

• Under 11s - Mid Wilts
• Under 15s - North

County Age Group Player of the Year:

A really important part of the evening is to recognise the outstanding performers over the course of the season for their respective county age groups.

It was another successful year for girls and women’s cricket in the county. During the winter we ran coaching programmes for under 11s, 13s, 15s, 17s and women. In the summer, our under 15s and upwards participated in the ECB competitions whilst we also offered an extensive competition offer for our under 13 girls. During the season, our under 13s won 9 of their matches, our under 15s; 3 and whilst the under 17s only won 1 they also lost several games very narrowly by less than 10 runs. Looking forward, as part of the new strategy that I mentioned earlier, girls and women’s cricket will continue to receive lots of focus from ECB, including the development of specific standards for what county cricket should look like for girls from under 11 upwards. We are also seeing great growth in the female game in clubs, on the back of the success of women’s soft ball cricket. All in all, an exciting time.

Girls and Womens County Age Group Players of the Year:

• Girls Under 13s – Emily Smith
• Girls Under 15s – Isla Thomson
• Girls Under 17s – Poppy Sladen
• Women – Lucy Wood

Within boys age group cricket, we saw the first year of a changed under 10s programme which saw intra county support for the first part of the season, followed by inter county cricket in the second half. We also continued to offer regular fixtures and festivals at under 11s, 12s and 13s before our ECB competition teams kicked in from under 14s-17s.

We also this year saw the commencement of a Talent Pathway partnership with Gloucestershire Cricket which enabled us to run an anehanced skillset programme and Emerging Player Programme. Much like girls cricket, boys talent pathway cricket is also receiving greater attention from ECB as we move towards 2020, with the development of standards for both winter training and summer competition across the whole country. Additionally, we will have the opportunity to bid for additional funding to enhance our Emerging Player Programme.

Boys County Age Group Players of the Year:

• Under 10s – Finlay Hobson
• Under 11s – Oliver Butterworth
• Under 12s – Sam Ashman
• Under 13s – Jacob Hobson
• Under 14s – Ben Howgrave-Graham
• Under 15s – Oliver Whiteley
• Under 17s – Edward Wade
• 2^nd XI – Tom Grant

Wiltshire CCC Awards:

One thing we are delighted to be able to do at this Awards evening is celebrate the performances of our county 1^st XI. The Cricket Board and County Club work very closely together and as part of our new strategy for 2020-2024 this will increase further as we look to create a structure that sees an under 10 player, potentially playing his first game for Wiltshire, feel part of the same pathway as a player representing the full county 1^st XI. More on this to follow as we build towards 2020.

In terms of the 2019 season, the county 1^st XI had a great season; finishing 2^nd in the T20 group, semi-finalists in the one day trophy and 3^rd place in the Championship group, thus qualifying for the top division of the newly formed National Counties Championship in 2020.

• Wiltshire CCC Young Player of the Year - Jake Goodwin
• Wiltshire CCC Players of the Year - Jake Lintott

Wiltshire Cricketers of the Year:

As is now traditional, the awards evening concluded with the presentation of the Wiltshire Cricketer of the Year awards. For the first time in 2019, we awarded one for both girls and boys cricket, with the winners as follows:

Girls Cricketer of the Year - Lily Day

Boys Cricketer of the Year - Charlie Slade

Thanks:

Wiltshire Cricket's thanks go to our sponsors; Interconics, Your Claim, Corsham Print, Home Ground Pharmacy, Chubb and Gaiger. We would also like to thank Julia's House for their attendance and support on the evening