| Sunday 1st XI - Ian Hayter |
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Page 1 of 18 October 21 - North Devon League Awards Evening
Not only did we win the title, we also won the Umpires' Fair Play Award and Martin won the Division 1 bowling award. What a season!!
Yep - it's all done and dusted now. We collected the Champions Cup (though I noticed the Division 3 cup was bigger than ours!), the Fair Play Award (2nd year in a row) and Martin won the bowling award. Great effort from everyone.
Very proud to have captained the side to the title, against teams from the Premier and A Devon League divisions, as well as strong teams from Filleigh, Newton Tracey and Hatherleigh.
Three of our bowlers finished in the League top 5 - Martin, myself and Fordy, and two batsmen were in the batting top 5 - Matt and Fordy again. A great effort not just from those guys, but everyone who came into the team.
Great performances all. And let's not forget Matt and Fordy who were outstanding all season and the foundations upon which our victories were built. Matt scored 547 runs at 45, Fordy 372 at 41 and Mikey actually joined in after July and finished the season well with 317 at 35. Will played only half a dozen matches but ended up with 210 at 35. Bowling wise, Martin ended up with 17 wickets at a miserly 14, I got 16 wickets at 16 a-piece and Fordy 13 at 18. Matty was also top of the wicket-keepers with 13 catches and 2 stumpings. And I didn't even let him keep wicket in every match!!
We'e taken some superb catches as well. Alan was excellent in the slips, Josh brilliant in the field (when he wasn't nursing a hangover) and our general fielding and catching was good. We had some nightmare games of course - Sandford at home was one with three mental run outs in our innings and five dropped catches. But there you go - these things happen - no one ever deliberately drops a catch or runs themself out.
But it was a tremendous all-round performance from everyone. I can't stress enough the importance of playing together as a team - we've really done that well this year. Less 'high profile' players have really come to the fore and won us matches. Feedback from the umpires has always been very positive, they are enjoying umpiring our games, though I suspect they enjoy our teas more!!!
I will miss it next year for sure. I won't miss Josh puking all down my car, or someone having a strop, or banging my head against a brick wall week after week, but I will miss the banter & the team spirit that has built up over the last three years. I'll miss running a team that has evolved into a strong cohesive and supportive unit that plays good cricket but most importantly has fun and enjoys itself.
I said most of my thank you's in an earlier blog, except of course to the players who put up with my 'crazy' batting orders and bowling changes every week. All I can say is - we won the League!! It's been lots of fun, I hope to continue playing next season but I'm not sure yet how much. Whoever takes over, good luck and my very best wishes to them.
Cheers all.
Ian
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But it's time for me to stand down now. It’s been a bit of a roller-coaster ride over the last three seasons, but we’ve come a very long way. Week in week out I’ve tried to stress the importance of playing together as a team – everyone has contributed to our title winning season and that's the secret of our success. We’ve also won the Umpires’ Fair Play Award two years in a row now which means not only are we playing some very decent cricket, but we’re also playing it in the right way. We were involved in some exciting and memorable games and I hope whoever takes over the captaincy will have the same level of commitment from the players that I had.
Alan got a fantastic hundred against Braunton in the first league game, Dave Smale got a 5-fer against Hatherleigh, Webby a majestic 79 against Sandford who we then bowled out for 56 (Sam Allin 4-15); Dave Staddon got 3-15 to help bowl Filleigh out for 76, Josh hit a superb match-winning 59* under pressure to beat Filleigh at home, Paul Shepherd spun out Newton Tracey with 5-11, Mike 'Oz' Young and Will Barratt put on 200 against Heathcoat at home, then young Freddie took 2-10, and Martin was almost unplayable against Braunton at home as he took 3-14 off 9.