IW County Press cricket award winners, left, wicketkeeper Josh Proctor and batting and bowling winner Ash Goldsmith, both of Northwood. Picture by Robin Crossley.
PICTURE GALLERY
CRICKET
DESPITE it being one of the worst seasons in history for fixture fulfilment because of bad weather, there was still plenty to celebrate and recognise at the IW Cricket Board’s leagues presentation evening.
Held at a packed Ryde Cricket Club, there were awards aplenty for individual and team achievement across junior and senior leagues, with Northwood, Newport and Ryde featuring heavily in the list.
But it was not always about the bigger clubs. St Helens revelled in their Harwoods Renault IW League Division 1 title victory, as did Niton who won the Harwoods Indoor Cup. Godshill, the Fred Winter Memorial Cup winners, also featured highly in the Division 2 batting and bowling awards.
Norton Mew won both leading wicket taker and top of the averages, while John Turner was leading run scorer.
The IW County Press cricket awards were given first, with big applause for Northwood’s Ashley Goldsmith who is the first person in recent memory to win both batting and bowling awards.
Ashley, 19, of Newport, scored almost 1,100 runs and took almost 60 wickets across all competitions and friendlies, and said: "It’s a real honour to follow in the footsteps of my dad, Jon, and my uncle, Simon, with the bowling award, and to win the batting award too is really special."
Team-mate Josh Proctor, 15, of Gurnard, won the wicketkeeping award. "I didn’t even realise I was in the running until the County Press told me," he said. "It’s nice to win it!"
There was also a special moment for winners of the OSCAs, nationally-recognised awards through the ECB celebrating services behind the scenes.
Tina Cooper, who volunteers with the IW Cricket Board, won the behind the scenes award for her organisational skills, while Roy Cooper was recognised for his work on the county umpires’ panel. Ryde Cavaliers’ Tony Higgins was recognised for his work as fixtures’ secretary, while Ventnor teen Arthur Halsey picked up the young volunteer prize for helping with coaching at club and county level.
Sandown Bay Academy’s work to improve schools’ cricket won the building partnerships prize, and sports’ teacher Jon Miselbach was singled out for special praise, while Arreton won the NatWest CricketForce award.
The OSCA lifetime achiever award went to Ventnor’s third team manager Graham Cotton, who also Ventnor’s groundsman and the IWCB’s club’s committee chairman.
The final award of the night, the Peter Corney Award for services to cricket, went to teacher Peter Giles, who is secretary of the IW Schools’ Cricket Association. Former colleague David Killpack presented the award, and told the audience: "My daughters both went to Nodehill and loved Mr Giles because he treated everybody the same, showed people respect and made sure a game was always played fairly.
"He is a tremendous servant to Island cricket, and somehow he finds time to do this, teach full time and also run the IW Schools’ Football Association as well."
IW Cricket Board chairman Ron Cook said: "I think this has been our most difficult season, with barely any play during May and June, and it was only down to the incredible work of ground staff across the Island that the leagues were able to be completed at all."
• Full list of award winners in the Friday, October 19, County Press.
• Pictures from our online gallery www.iwcpgallery.co.uk below.
Click on the image for a larger version.
Reporter: sport@iwcpmail.co.uk