Over 150 people attended the annual dinner of the Leinster Cricket Union, which took place at Old Belvedere RFC on Friday , 11th November. The awards dinner distributed over 40 team and individual awards for the 2011 season.
In his address to the union at the dinner the President of the LCU, Eddie Lewis reported on the changes to the structures of the union that had taken place over the past year and thanked the many volunteers who serve on committees, run competitions, coach teams, compile averages, umpire matches and much more.
He painted a bright future for the development of cricket in the province, commenting that
‘Cricket in Leinster has benefitted massively from the success of our national team. This has made it possible for the first time in living memory to really grow the sport out from its traditional roots.
We have been provided with a marvellous opportunity to build on this platform and really develop the sport at local level, getting more people interested in watching and playing’.
He reported how the employment of development officers had facilitated the growth of new clubs across the province. There are five new clubs entering league teams for the first time next year and of the ten new teams all but one come from new or recently formed clubs.
He also noted the strength of youth cricket. ‘We now have a vibrant primary school competition, the Leprechaun Cup with nearly 40 teams – the number growing each year - and there will be a new primary school league next year to go with the cup competition.
More secondary schools are taking up the game than ever before and at youth level within the clubs there are over 2000 registered players.’
There has also been an influx of very talented girls taking up the sport, with two under 15 Leinster girls currently with the full Irish Womens Team in Bangladesh for the World Cup qualifier tournament.
But he added a word a caution. ‘This is all very positive but if we are to develop the sport further we need to strengthen our finances, we are grateful to our existing sponsors but we need more, we should aim to achieve a higher profile in the media, provide more support for our coaching structures but most of all, we need the individual clubs to look at ways of pooling resources and co-operating off the field, just as they compete on the field.’
He cited the successful introduction of the ‘trailer scheme’ providing clubs with equipment for carrying out ground-work during the year as an example of the benefits of clubs working together with the union.
All the league and individual award for the Open and Womens Competitions were presented on the night. The names of the league winners have all previously notified.
The winners of the individual awards were as follows:
AWARDS
Mens’ Individual Awards
Marchant Cup Batting D1/2 Andre Botha (Terenure)
O’Grady Cup Bowling D1/2 Dave Langford-Smith (Phoenix)
Samuels Cup All Rounder D1/2 Dominick Joyce (Merrion)
Hopkins Cup W Keeper D1/2 Paul Tweddle (Malahide)
Solomons Cup Catches Dave Langford-Smith (Phoenix)
Bookman Cup Batting D3/4 Neil Brown (Merrion)
Oulton Cup Bowling D3/4 Yaqoob Ali (YMCA)
Webster Trophy All rounder D3/4 Masood Ahmed (Phoenix)
Womens’ Individual Awards
Womens D1 Batting Kim Garth (Pembroke)
Womens D2 Batting Fiona Manning (Clontarf)
Womens D3 Batting Carol Mackenzie (RU)
Womens D1 Bowling Laura Delany (Leinster)
Womens D2 Bowling Sharon Corbett (Pembroke)
Womens D3 Bowling Vanessa Johnston (RU)
Womens D1 Wicket Keeping Valmai Gee (Leinster)
Womens D2 Wicket Keeping No Award given
Womens D3 Wicket Keeping Veronica Fay-Watt (The Hills)
Howard Cup D1 All Rounder Isobel Joyce (Merrion)
Special Awards
Most Improved Player (Women) Elena Tice (Merrion)
Young Player of the Year Tyrone Kane (Merrion)
John Dawson Fair Play Award (M) Barry McCarthy (Pembroke)
Clarissa Pilkington Fair Play Award (W) Carol Cromer (Pembroke)
Players Player Award Dave Langford-Smith (Phoenix)
The final award of the night for the induction of a person into the Cricket Leinster : Hall of Fame. This year the award went to Michael Sharp in recognition of the 30 consecutive years of services to the LCU, 29 of these as Secretary of the Junior Branch.
All photos here are courtesy of John Austin, and can be purchased from www.johnaustin.ie