Eighteen year old Kane Williamson has won the NDCricket Player of the Year. The State Northern Knights all-rounder had a fantastic season with the bat and chimed in with some important spells when bowling, particularly during the successful State Shield campaign.
At the NDCrikcet Annual Awards dinner last evening special presentations were also made recognising the winning State Shield team, scorer Bill Andersson’s 100th first class match, the New Zealand record one day batting partnership of 196 between Kane Williamson and Peter McGlashan, and former Whitefern Louise Milliken who retired from cricket at the end of the season.
The full list of awards was:
Eric Petrie Cup:
Awarded to the winner of the Northern Districts Club Championship. This season’s winning club is Otumoetai Cadets.
Otumoetai Cadets represented Northern Districts at the National Club Finals held in Cornwall Park last week.
Bruce Pairaudeau Cup:
This is a challenge trophy for District Associations Under 19 teams. This seasons winner is Bay of Plenty. They successfully challenged for the Trophy and remained holders at the end of the season so have their name engraved as the 2008/09 Trophy winners.
Basil McBurney Trophy:
For the District Association 2nd XI competition.
The champion 2nd XI team is Northland.
Women’s District Association Championship Cup:
The Northern Districts Women’s Championship, involving District Assn representative teams, was played over two weekends, with the top 2 teams then playing off in the final. Hamilton defeated Waikato Valley in the final.
Brian Dunning Cup:
The Brian Dunning Cup is for the men’s one day championship. This year Hamilton and Counties Manukau finished equal on points and share the championship.
Fergus Hickey Rosebowl
The Fergus Hickey Rosebowl is awarded to the champion District Association team and is determined by points gained in both one day and two day games.
This years winner was: Bay of Plenty
The Allan McBride Trophy: Ron Rae
Services to Coaching: Steve Davies
Umpire of the Year: Tony Hill
ABN AMRO Craigs Academy Player of the Year
ABN AMRO Craigs sponsor ND’s High Performance Development Academy. Players in the academy are the most promising young players in Northern Districts, ranging in age from 15-19. This award recognizes a player who has achieved at National Level, who has shown commitment to the programme, and who has made significant progress in his time in the Academy.
This years winner is Anurag Verma.
Anurag represented NZ Under 19 on a tour to England in 2008 and on an internal tour of NZ in 2009. Anurag has also been a member of the Hamilton men’s representative team. He captained the Hamilton Boys High School team to win the Gillette Cup, the National Schools Championship, in December. He is now studying for an engineering degree at Auckland University.
We also took this opportunity to present Anurag with the John Guy Trophy, for the top secondary school team in Northern Districts in 2008/09, to be passed on to Anurag’s old school Hamilton Boys High School.
The Northern Districts Young Cricketer of the Year sponsored by Grant Bradburn Sports:
This is presented to the most outstanding male cricketer under the age of 21. This trophy can be won only once. The last two winners have been Kane Williamson and Tim Southee.
This years recipient is Trent Boult.
Trent was selected for the NZ Emerging Players team to play in the Emerging Players tournament in Queensland against Australia and South Africa. He took 12 wickets in that tournament at an average of 21 runs per wicket.
Trent began the NZ 1st class season strongly taking a 5 wicket bag in the first championship game v Otago. In the first 3 games he took 9 wickets at an average of 23 runs per wicket.
Trent was then named in the BLACKCAPS team to tour Australia, but played only in the warm up one day game versus the Prime Ministers XI.
Returning to the Knights, Trent bowled consistently well during the State Shield, taking 16 wickets at an average of 24 runs per wicket. Unfortunately injury then curtailed his season and he missed the remainder of the State championship games
District Association Player of the Year
This award recognizes the achievement of players at District Association level in the Fergus Hickey and Brian Dunning competitions. Opposing team captains award points on a 3,2,1 basis to the best players in each game. This years winner accumulated 16 points, well ahead of the runners up on 9 points. He contributed with both bat and ball helping Counties Manukau to a share of the one day championship and to runners up in the Fergus Hickey.
Simon Andrews is this season’s District Association player of the year.
Northern Districts Men’s A Team Player of the Year also sponsored by The Radio Network.
This is an award that recognizes the efforts of players in the ND A team at the National Tournament at Lincoln. This year’s winner is Brad Wilson of Northland.
Brad enjoyed an outstanding tournament scoring 424 runs at an average of over 70. In all games for ND A he scored 466 runs at an average of 52. He was rewarded by selection in the NZ Emerging Players team against England A and in the State Northern Knights for the rest of the season.
ND Women’s Cricketer of the Year sponsored by the Radio Network:
This award is for the most outstanding Northern Districts’ female cricketer. Performances over the whole season at all levels are taken into account, but impact on the Northern Spirit team’s performance is to be a major consideration.
There were two outstanding candidates for this award. Nicola Browne scored 449 runs in the State League at an average of 64. She also took 8 wickets. Against Australia for the Whiteferns Nicola averaged 25 with the bat and took 4 wickets. In the Women’s World Cup Nicola averaged 35 with the bat and took 4 wickets.
Kate Pulford scored 333 runs in the State league at an average of 33 and took 17 wickets at an average of 17 with an economy rate of only 3.20 runs per over. In the State League Twenty20 Kate totaled 193 runs at the outstanding strike rate of 122. Her highest score was 83 not out. Kate was also selected for the White Ferns.
In the Women’s World Cup she totalled 115 runs and took 6 wickets at 21 runs per wicket. She also top scored with 29 in the Twenty20 match between Australia and NZ at the Sydney Cricket Ground.
For her all round efforts this season, the winner of the Women’s Player of the Year is Kate Pulford. Kate is domiciled in Christchurch, but has played for the Spirit for the past three seasons. Accepting the award on her behalf is Anna Wilkins
The Northern Districts Fielder of the Year:
BJ Watling has been selected by the team coaches as the fielder of the year. In a team with some outstanding fielders BJ stood out. He took 14 catches, several of them outstanding efforts. His attacking inner circle fielding, with his vitality and work ethic, always supported his bowlers and put pressure on the batsmen. BJ maintained the high standard he set in winning the award in 2008.
The Northern Districts Bowler of the Year
There were a number of candidates for this award. Brent Arnel represented NZ A in India and the NZ Emerging Players in Australia. In all 3 forms of the game he took 30 wickets for the Knights and he was agonizingly close to playing for NZ against India when injury intervened.
Tim Southee was player of the series in the BLACKCAPS one day series win over England in England earlier in 2008. He played only a handful of games for the Knights, taking 19 wickets including a 5 wicket bag against Canterbury in the State Championship.
Trent Boult starred in the Emerging Players tournament in Australia, taking 12 wickets at 21 runs per wicket. For the Knights he took a total of 25 wickets before injury cut short his season.
However, the Bowler of the Year award for 2009 goes to the bowler who took the most wickets for the Knights, in all formats of the game: 21 in the State Championship, 8 in the State Shield, and 11 wickets in the State Twenty20, a total of 40 wickets. His spell in the State Shield Final: 2 wickets for 23 was a major factor in the Knights’ State Shield victory. This seasons bowler of the year is Bruce Martin.
The Northern Districts Batsman of the Year
There were significant performances by a number of batsmen. Michael Parlane scored over 1000 runs for the Knights in the State Championship, State Shield and State Twenty20 competitions. Daniel Flynn consolidated his position at Number 3 in the BLACKCAPS test team and scored a century in his only State Championship innings. And BJ Watling enjoyed an outstanding State Shield series scoring 509 runs at the impressive average of 63, before breaking a finger playing for NZ A against England A and missing the second half of the State Championship.
We should also mention Peter McGlashan’s rise to International status with his selection in the BLACKCAPS in both ODI and Twenty20 games. His innovative batting saw the Knights win a remarkable victory over the Wellington Firebirds, with Peter hitting the last 2 balls of the game for sixes to give us the win.
But over the whole season the outstanding statistics were those of Kane Williamson. At only 18 years of age Kane showed his class in both one day and four day competitions. His 320 runs at an average of 45 in the State Shield, including a maiden one day century versus Canterbury, was followed by 707 runs at an average of 54 in the State Championship. This included his maiden 1st class century versus Auckland, another century v Wellington, as well as two scores in the nineties and an 82. Truly an outstanding season, making him a worthy winner of the Batsman of the Year award,
The Northern Districts Player of the Year sponsored by the Air New Zealand Holidays
The Player of the year award goes to the most outstanding player for Northern Districts in domestic State Competitions, the State Championship, State Shield and State Twenty20.
The batting achievements of this year’s winner have already been outlined. A total of 1084 runs and 3 centuries show how well he played. However, his contribution at the bowling crease should also be noted. He took 16 wickets in the State Championship and, although he took only 4 wickets in the State Shield, his economy rate was a low 4.2 runs per over. His spell in the State Shield final played a major role in the Knights winning of the State Shield. Bowling in tandem with Bruce Martin. The pair effectively choked the life out of the Otago innings, and like Martin he conceded only 23 runs from his 10 overs.
He may be only 18 years old, but Kane Williamson is already the Northern Knights Player of the Year.
