This is the U11s cricket presentation speech (actual words said on the night will vary):
Intro
Just me sorry. Firstly, I’d like to thank the parents who helped out during the year, particularly Tom, Rick, Phil, Paul, Jenny & Gavin, but basically any parent who fetched up the boundary after a game or helped us push the covers back on or anything else. Without your help, we wouldn’t have been able to play matches, so thank you – we always need the help of volunteers.
Recap of the season
We’ve had a great season this year. Last year, we played a little bit under the shadow of the U12s, but our boys learned a lot from them and they took that into this year.
We entered two teams into the High Peak pairs league and one team into the South Manchester T20 league, then played in the summer cup equivalents.
The South Manchester league was good exposure to proper Twenty20, if-you’re-out-you’re-out cricket as that’s all we will play next season. We shined in the first phase, winning the group and nearly winning every match (a nail-biting defeat to Brooklands was our only loss).
That put us into Division 1 and there we found our match – unfortunately, we didn’t manage to win a game. However, we did improve as we went along, and we never had a full strength team out or played with the confidence we did in the High Peak league.
Talking of the High Peak, we decided at the start to enter two teams into the main league - unfortunately they were put into the same division. Both teams did great, with Magic having a number of exciting matches and, whilst they finished 8th, it was a narrow victory or two from 4th, and there was lots of great team spirit.
Phoenix meanwhile were fearsome, winning all 12 matches they played, often by some very convincing margins. They won it which made us champions for the third year running, with Mersey winning the High Peak title an incredible five times in four years.
In the summer cups, we were mid-table in the South Manchester cup and got to the semi-finals of the High Peak cup, losing against a very strong team after a couple of exciting live team draws.
Over the course of the full season, we won 25 games and lost 14, so a really good win rate (64%!) and, right across the board, the team really developed and played with excellent spirit throughout.
Players’ player award
This is the one that all the players would like to win, the award voted for by their teammates. It was nip and tuck, and it was uncertain as to who it would be for a while. This particular player scored crucial runs in both the High Peak semi-final and final, and has always been positive and thoughtful on the field (and indeed off it). The winner of the players’ player award is … Will.
Coaches’ player award
This is the one awarded by the coaches, i.e. Anna, Ian and me. It’s a chance to look beyond the pure stats and factor in things like attitude. He’s someone who is always present at training and has a great positive outlook on the field. The winner of the coaches’ player award is … Adam.
Spirit of cricket award
This is a new award this year, brought in to reward the player who plays the game in the right spirit, hard but always fair. He’s someone who always checks in on the opposition batters if they get hit by the ball, and says “unlucky” if they get out (unless he’s bowling of course!), and always plays the game in the right way. It’s exactly what we want the face of Heaton Mersey cricket to be. The winner of the spirit of cricket award is … Thomas.
Most improved award
This is the award we give to the player who has really developed since last year, through dedication and perseverance. The whole team has improved from last year, but this player has really stuck out as someone has stepped things up. Last year, my stats show that he got 17 runs and 5 wickets. This year, he has increased that to an impressive 98 runs and 13 wickets, so a really great improvement. He scored 20 not out against Cheadle and 24 against Lindow, both T20 matches. He got 3 wickets in his first over of the season, and 2-0 off 5 balls in the next game. The winner of the most improved award goes to … Finlay.
Best fielder award
There have been many great fielding moments this season. Some amazing catches – Oliver Murphy’s one-handed catch against (I think) Timperley had Ian’s vote at the time for catch of the season, although Charlie took a great catch to rival that against the Bramhall Bisons in the last game, hurting himself in the process. I think he threw the ball away in what looked like he was being dismissive but was actually pain.
There have been countless run-outs, perhaps the most dramatic of which was Gregory’s run-out as bowler, throwing the stumps down whilst on his knees and knocking a wobbly tooth out at the same time. I also recall Archie throwing down the stumps from exactly the same fielding position in two consecutive games.
There have been numerous players trying their hand behind the stumps. Finlay and Max managed to concede just a single bye in one match. The winner of this award was largely an outfield player, making cover his own, but did dabble behind the stumps and did well. He also took one of the best catches of the season.
A Brooklands bowler climbed into a ball from Harry, lacing it for what seemed like a certain four, but this player casually dived to the left, goalkeeper-style, and took it in two hands. I was umpiring so saw it close at hand. The winner of the best fielder award is … Jake.
Best batter award
We now move on to the more stats-based award – first up, best batter. There have been many great batting performances this year – it’s probably the area where we have most improved compared to last year.
To illustrate this, last year we had three players getting above 100 runs (and not much more than 100). This year, we’ve had 12 players getting above 100 runs, and in some cases significantly more. The 12 are (in alphabetical order to give nothing away): Archie, Charlie, Emmet, George, Gregory, Harvey, Jake, Leo, Sam, Thomas, Will and Zane.
Picking out some of those players, we had:
- Sam battling hard and finishing top scorer with 20 against Whalley Range having been hit on the helmet early on, getting over 150 runs in the season.
- Thomas setting the tone in our first match of the season, retiring on 26 not out against Didsbury, also retiring against Brooklands, and scoring 170 runs.
- Jake smashing it effortlessly to the boundary in many a pairs game, and brilliantly closing out the game against Stockport, scoring 213 runs.
- Charlie gamely opening the batting in T20 on a number of occasions and doing well, also scoring 20+ on numerous occasions including a top score of 32 in a pairs game. He scored 221 runs.
- Will, who twice retired in T20 matches, and scored crucial runs in the semi-final with 24 against Bollington and 13 against Cheadle Hulme Ladybridge. He actually snuck very narrowly to the top of the averages with 254 runs at an average of 31.75.
- Leo, who retired 4 times in T20, including an incredible 31 not out in an U13s match plus two other scores of over 20. He also bludgeoned 37 in one pairs match and 31 in another. Leo finished on 320 runs for season. And remember he is two years younger.
- Gregory, who retired in his first two matches, at one point had the highest T20 average at the whole club and retired a further time later in the season. He was a model of consistency throughout the season, steadily accumulating, and he was second in the averages, with 348 runs at 31.64 (so less than 0.1 behind Will).
- But the winner this season… He scored the most runs (381) but it was also the manner in which they were scored, taking attacks apart, often against U12s and U13s (he played 10 games at that level, always offering himself up). He opening the innings a number of times, setting the tone, and hit an absolutely enormous 6 against Bollington, which nearly ended up in the nearby river. There was a standout innings against Timperley that I remember, where he hit an effortless 25 retired when others struggled to time it, and he retired two other times in the season. The winner of best batter is … George.
Best bowler award
The final award now is for best bowler, which is closely contested as we have such a great bunch of bowlers at Mersey.
We had 8 bowlers taking over 10 wickets this season, compared to 3 last year, again showing the improvement. In alphabetical order, these were Finlay, George, Gregory, Harvey, Jake, Leo, Thomas and Will.
We had two hat-tricks during the season (according to my records – I was umpire for both of them – just saying). Jake took one in a High Peak game, including a caught & bowled. He took 17 wickets at an amazing average of 7.4.
Thomas also took one in a T20 game, separated by about 9 overs because of bowler rotation. He got bounce and metronomically hit the top of off stump, took 14 wickets at a miserly 8.4, including figures of 4-4 in one game.
We also heard about Finlay earlier, who actually took three wickets in four balls in that first match, and got 13 wickets at 10.5.
Leo took 18 wickets at 8.3, bamboozling the batters with his off spin (although he occasionally turned to pace), including best figures of 3-4.
Harvey took 16 wickets at just over 8 runs each, always accurate and bowling full.
George took the most wickets, 23, in an incredible 29 matches (I said he was keen!), averaging 8.7. He regularly opened the bowling - he was the spearhead of our shock and awe strategy. When the ball fizzed past the batter’s eyes, we knew the next one was going to smash into the stumps.
However, the winner, and I had no say in this for the record, with 21 wickets at just 6.4 runs apiece (the best average), with best figures of 4-4, almost always opening the bowling, generating rapid pace from an at-times innocuous looking run-up, always feeling hard-done by when not getting a third over. The winner of best bowler is … Gregory.
And that is it! Well done again to the whole team for a great season, and if you weren’t mentioned that doesn’t mean you didn’t contribute.
Awards
Players’ player: Will
Coaches’ player: Adam
Spirit of cricket: Thomas
Most improved: Finlay
Fielder: Jake
Batter: George
Bowler: Gregory
Picture from the presentation evening:
