THE Lake Garage Central Lancashire League held their annual dinner at Rochdale Cricket Club on Friday night.
Guest speaker was former Yorkshire captain Richard Blakey and the master of ceremonies was Heywood Cricket Club’s Andy Hargreaves.
After the meal, the individual awards for the season were handed out.
Bobby Cross, skipper of Heywood’s title-winning team, won the Frank Worrell Trophy – most runs scored by an amateur – for a record fourth time, scoring 834 runs during the 2008 campaign.
Rochdale all-rounder Neil Avery was handed the prestigious President’s Cup by league president John Cleary. He is the 25th winner of the award which is given for services to the league.
Avery started his CLL cricketing career with Castleton Moor at the age of 16. He took more than 200 wickets for them before moving to Rochdale when Moor were expelled from the league.
He is approaching 1,000 wickets and has scored between 7-8,000 runs, so far, and has won nine CLL title. More remarkably, he has missed just two of 700 matches since he started playing in the league.
The Clifford Pickup Trophy for the most wickets by an amateur - overseas amateurs not included - also went to a league stalwart.
Littleborough’s left-arm spinner Phil Deakin took 56 wickets. Heywood were again among the honours as Tom Hardman netted the Lal Vohra Trophy for the most improved young player.
He scored 634 runs and bagged 18 wickets. Due to starting a new job, Tom was unable to collect his prize and his father Richard stepped in to do the honours.
The Littleborough Supporters Trophy for all-rounder of the year was Monton and Weaste’s Trent Scott, with 683 runs and 42 wickets.
The inaugural ‘Spirit of the Game Trophies’, based on marks awarded by the umpires throughout the season, were won Middleton in the first division, and Crompton in the second.
The total points for the top three in each division were:
Division One
Middleton, 86.5; Unsworth, 84; Ashton, 81.5.
Division Two
Crompton, 84; Ashton, 83.5; Norden, 83.
