Moray Cricket Association - Inaugural presentation evening

Posted on 19 November 2015

Moray Cricket Association Presentation Evening

In a year that the junior cricket programme in Moray registered many more games and much more activity across Moray schools and by all MCA Member clubs it came as no surprise that this award winning programme would add icing to the cake!

And so it has! At Milne’s High School on Thursday 12th November before an audience of parents, club volunteers, invited guests and – of course – the junior cricketers, the inaugural Moray Cricket Association Annual Presentation Evening took place. Distributing league winning awards, individual performance awards for batters and bowlers, schools accreditation awards and awards recognising the contribution of the Association’s many volunteers.

MCA Chair, Iain McDonald, introduced the evening and welcomed all – a good turnout – thanking them for coming along and braving the weather. After a few words from, Neil Cameron, Cricket Scotland’s Club Development Manager handed over to the MC for the evening Moray Council’s Senior Sports Development Officer, Kim Paterson. Deputising for the MCA’s hard-working and innovative Community Coach, Neil Nicol, who was unable to attend, Ms Paterson introduced each of the awards across the  MCA junior programmes. Ms Paterson also paid tribute to those who make the programme run almost seamlessly, the hard-working volunteers on the MCA at the member clubs, school teachers and support staff, Moray Active Schools and – of course – the growing number of boys and girls involved in cricket in Moray.

Among the invited guests who presented trophies and awards were Mr George McIntyre of the Gordon and Ena Baxter Foundation and the Moray Council’s Director of Education Mr Lawrence Findlay. Presenting the 2015 GBJL winners with the cup, Mr McIntyre spoke warmly of the role that Gordon Baxter had been delighted to play during his life time in promoting and supporting junior cricket in Moray.

A notable highlight from the evening was the four individual awards that Laura Grant of Huntly won together with two team trophies too!

It has been a very successful year of junior cricket for MCA member clubs with at least four matches taking place each week during April and September. The numbers of juniors joining clubs from the schools programme has increased and the number of games taking place between schools (Primary and Secondary) is at an all time high! 2016 has a big act to follow!

In closing the presentation evening Ms Paterson echoed Mr McDonald’s “thanks to everyone for coming, the presentation party and, in particular, Neil Nicol for his contribution to the success of the, now, much talked about award winning* MCA programme and wished him a speedy recovery.”

*During 2015 the MCA, fittingly, won the inaugural Cricket Scotland  Last Man Stands Award - Strongest Community Engagement. The MCA year is divided thus:

A Winter Programme which includes:

o  A Girl’s Indoor League (the first of its kind in Scotland) involving 5 teams

o  An Indoor League for club under-13s

o  Skills training and coaching for its under-16s, under-13 boys and under-13 girls

A Summer Programme which includes:

o  A schools coaching programme during April/June culminating in 5 club-based Kwik Cricket festivals and involvement in the National P6 Kwik Cricket Competition

o  Secondary School’s cricket and involvement in the National Secondary Schools Tournamenst for boys and girls

o  A Girl’s League (the first of its kind in Scotland), with an 18-week fixture programme

o  A series of Kwik Cricket festivals for those in P7 in 2015 – there were 6 festivals this year, 50% increase on 2014 – The Eadie Walls Trophy.

o  An 8-a-side hardball league for club under-14s – The Gordon Baxter Junior League, and

o  For the first time, an 11-a-side hardball league for under-16s – The Moray Colts League

o  As well as continuing the girls and boys ‘elite’ group of coaching

 

Awards roll-call:

Team Awards

Eadie Walls Trophy – Winners: Huntly B

MCA Kwik Cricket Fair-play Award – Winners: Elgin

Gordon Baxter Junior League – Winners: Huntly A

MCA Colts League - Winners: Gordonstoun School

MCA Girls League - Winners Huntly

Individual Awards

GBJL Under-14s Individual Awards

Most Runs Scored - Stuart Lister (Huntly)

Most Wickets - Laura Grant (Huntly & Shane Hayward (Nairn County)

Best Batting Average - Henry Kerr (Nairn County)

Best Bowling Average - Laura Grant (Huntly)

MCA Colts Individual Awards

Most Runs Scored - Tom Walton (Gordonstoun School)

Most Wickets - Jason Brandsma (Nairn County)

Best Batting Average - Tom Walton (Gordonstoun School)

Best Bowling Average - Grant Christie (Huntly)

MCA Girls Individual Awards

Most Runs Scored - Laura Grant (Huntly)

Most Wickets - Isobel Couttie, Kira Gordon & Laura Grant (all Huntly)

MCA Girl Player of the Year – Laura Grant (Huntly)

Moray Elite Squad Certificates

Best Girl Player - Anna Pritchard (Forres Academy)

Most Improved Girl - Hannah Kingham, Polly Lowry & Niamh Whelan (all Milnes High School) and Holly Cruikshank (Lossiemouth High School)

Best Boy Player - Jamie Hay (Milnes High School)

Most Improved Boy - Euan Grant (Milnes High School)

MCA Voluntary Achievement Awards

Mr George Chappell (Buckie CC), Mr David Cranston (Elgin CC), Mr Syd Hewett (Elgin CC)

Moray Schools Accreditation Certificates

Applegrove, Lhanbryde, New Elgin and Portgordon primary schools