Greater Manchester Cricket League Awards Evening

The Greater Manchester Cricket League celebrated the 2019 season at its Presentation evening last Friday which was held at The Point Old Trafford. 

The guest of honour was Dickie Bird and he entertained the audience with anecdotes in a “Q and A” session with John Gwynne.  With 11 Saturday and 7 Sunday Divisions there were 118 awards to be made and there was certainly plenty of evidence of local success.

With Denton St Lawrence taking the League and Cup double and also taking the Sunday Div 1A title, it came as little surprise that there were some individual honours.  Scott Kirwin, with 645 runs at an average of 49.08, took the batting prize in the Premier Division.  He also picked up 37 wickets to make it a great all-round performance and secure the Most Valuable Player, (MVP), award.  The Sycamore Park club’s 2nd XI were runners up in Div 3E, and Jody Clough, (485 runs and 48 wickets), was a key contributor being recognised with the MVP award in that Division. 

Flowery Field just missed out on promotion to the Premier Division, finishing 3rd behind Moorside, who had a marginally better run rate over the season.  One of the main architect’s of a good season, when he was also called up by Cheshire, was Mike Finan.  He finished with 541 runs and 72 wickets to deservedly claim the MVP award in Div 1A. 

Denton West scooped the Sunday Div A title, and had a clean sweep at the awards with Leighton Darby, who finished with 436 runs picking up the batting prize. The bowling award went to Owen Skilander.  Luke Auld and Jack Beeby received the fielding and wicketkeeping prizes respectively, and Skilander was the Divisional MVP.  Max Cole was the top wicket-keeper in Div 1A

Elsewhere locally Khaliq ur-Rehman from Ashton Ladysmith and Micklehurst’s Nick Lawrence also featured on the honours board.

The final award of the evening was to recognise the magnificent service to the game given by Cec Wright.  Back in September Reporter Sport brought news that Cec was to retire from the game having played for the last time at the ripe old age of 85.  Cec has been playing for Uppermill in recent years but before then had a distinguished  career as both a professional and amateur, initially in the Central Lancashire League.  The GMCL quite rightly recognised his 60+ year career with a Lifetime Achievement award.  

With the 2019 season now long over Clubs have been making preparations for next year both on and off the field.  Stayley have been particularly active on the playing side.  Moving to Oxford Street from Astley and Tyldesley is left arm fast bowler Chris Ware.  It has been a shorter move for Jake Fenton who has been at Dukinfield, and they have been joined by another familiar name on the Tameside scene, Chris Tipper, who has been at Hyde in the past and has also featured regularly in the Cheshire county set-up.

OLDHAM AND SADDLEWORTH

The Greater Manchester Cricket League celebrated the 2019 season at its Presentation evening last Friday which was held at The Point Old Trafford.  The guest of honour was Dickie Bird and he entertained the audience with anecdotes in a “Q and A” session with John Gwynne.  With 11 Saturday and 7 Sunday Divisions there were 118 awards to be made and there was certainly plenty of evidence of local success.

The Oldham and Saddleworth area had remarkable success in terms of silverware.  There were 6 Divisional winners.  Glodwick won Div 1A, (as well as Sunday Div A), and will move into the Premier Division, alongside Moorside who were runners-up.  Both Division 2 titles recognised the real Clubwide achievement at Shaw and Friarmere, and this was evidenced as their respective 2nd XI’s were also title winners (in DIv 5E and 4E respectively).  Saddleworth, (having dropped a couple of Divisions in order to rebuild things at Well-i-Hole), took the Div 3E title.  

Shaw had a remarkable season.  In addition to their senior teams winning their Divisions, they added the 1st XI Cup and Championship T20 plus the Sunday Plate competition and in terms of individual performance Henry Russell won the fielding prize in Sunday Div D.  Heyside celebrated winning the 2nd XI Championship Cup with Mark Ingham’s performances in the Little Hey Street club’s Sunday XI being reflected in the Most Valuable Player, (MVP), award in Sunday Div 1 in which  Syed Hassan (Austerlands) was the top bowler.

In terms of other individual awards Brad Woolley, (Greenfield), picked up the Premier Division bowling prize, (having taken 53 wickets) and together with team-mate Joe Hepworth shared the fielding award.  Werneth 2nd XI were well represented in Div 3E with Kashif Khan gaining the batting and Rashid Khan the bowling prizes.  In the same Division Dan Mulkeen of Springhead received the fielding prize.  Saqib Mehmood (Moorside) with 47wkts was MVP in Div 4E.  In Div 5E the awards went to Paul Thompson (Uppermill) - batting; Asim Raza (Austerlands) - bowling; James Shaw (Springhead) - fielding; WK - Scott Barlow (Uppermill) - WK; and Richard Doherty (Shaw) picked up the Divisional MVP.

The final award of the evening was to recognise the magnificent service to the game given by Cec Wright.  Back in September Reporter Sport brought news that Cec was to retire from the game having played for the last time at the ripe old age of 85.  Cec has been playing for Uppermill in recent years but before then had a distinguished career as both a professional and amateur, initially in the Central Lancashire League.  The GMCL quite rightly recognised his 60+ year career with a Lifetime Achievement award.  

With the 2019 season now long over Clubs have been making preparations for next year both on and off the field.  Greenfield will be having a change of professional and have moved quickly to secure Malinda Siriwardana who has played in 5 Test Matches and 27 ODI’s and was part of the Sri Lankan squad for this years World Cup. 

By Martin Frost