York Vale League awards night.
Attendees at North Yorkshire's York Vale Cricket League annual awards night donned the red in support of the Ruth Strauss Foundation recently, as young players dominated the league's awards in 2019.
Clifton Alliance bowler Matthew Simms (14) was named Scothern Construction Young Player of the Year at the annual HPH York Vale Cricket League awards. Matthew was also named Division One Young Player of Excellence, with spinner Harvey Jackson (14) of Dunnington awarded the Division Two accolade and Krishnan Parmar (13) of Bolton Percy the Division Three winner.
Opening bowler Simms was a key member of the Clifton Alliance Championship winning team, taking 26 wickets at an average of 12.54, whilst also averaging 21.2 with the bat. Paul Scothern of Scothern Construction, the award sponsors, presented the three winners with a glass trophy and a £50 sports voucher, acknowledging the growing number and quality of junior players enjoying senior cricket in the Vale League.
Individual awards were given to the league's top run scorer, Steve Jackson (Dunnington), who hit 911 runs and, with 50 wickets, Des Healey (Stamford Bridge) who topped the bowling. Matt Beevers (Melbourne) snatched the wicketkeeping trophy with 23 dismissals. Awards were also presented by Robert Woolley from the league's main sponsor, HPH chartered accountants, to the batting and bowling average winners in each division along with trophies to each of the championship and cup competition winners.
The Press Performance of the Year - a new award - went to Danny Crockford of Thorpe Willoughby for a stunning career best 9-3 in five overs, including a hat-trick, with eight of his victims being clean bowled.
Ruth Steels of Melbourne picked up the Club Tea of the Year award for the fifth time in six years.
The evening also inducted two more people into the Hall of Fame. Granville North (Hemingbrough) has been an ever-present in the Vale Cricket League for well over 30 years. The all-rounder's passion for cricket, which extends to being deputy groundsman, is shared with rugby league as a fervent fan of Wigan Warriors. North's greatest bowling achievement was taking 8-18 in eight overs against division 4 champions York IV in 2011.
John Myers, who sadly passed away during the summer, was posthumously inducted into the Hall of Fame. John began his career at Osbaldwick juniors before making his mark in the early 90s playing for Heslington and emerging as one of the heaviest run scorers in the Vale League. Myers joined Clifton Alliance in 2003 where he scored over 6000 runs, including nine centuries.
The awards, in association with the Foss Evening League, were held at the Regen Centre, Riccall and hosted by Andy Atkinson of BBC Radio York. A raffle for cricket kit donated by Lord’s International raised £500 for The Ruth Strauss Foundation.