2009 Chairman's Award

The Chairman's Award is special. While the cricketing awards are always hotly contested, The Chairman's (aka Wick Man of the Year) Award is given for outstanding contribution to the club in other ways.

Previous winners on the trophy read like a who's who of quiet, behind the scenes all round Wickness. The last two, Fudgey and Lownsy, picked up the coveted trophy for astounding donation of personal time to the cause - Fudgey for dragging the twos up into the top division while organising club day, tours, socials and working with the Colts, Lownsy for running the social side of the club and bringing the Dinner back to the club and into profit after years of slumming it in various souless hotels and conference venues.

This year there were any number of nominees. So many people have contributed to the running of the club this year that Wick Man will struggle to remember the Chairman's nominations - apologies if he has missed you out - Kirky for continuing to run the website; Charlie, Sam, Tim Rolls and the Colts Coaches for their work on Clubmark; Fudgey for Club Day; Steve Vaid for fundraising; Lownsy for the Club Dinner etc etc.

This year the winner was someone who could eclipse even them. Starting the year as Sunday Skipper, Greg "Leggsy" Unsworth finished it as a contributing member of the 2xi and took over the running of the bar and socials from Keith. That in the interim he also fought through the sort of adversity that would have sent many of us into a tailspin with dignity while continuing to support the club from the balcony and getting into the running of the club behind the scenes so quickly was, frankly, motivating, inspiring and humbling all at the same time.

Leggsy is too modest to realise, but his stoicism, good grace and courage has set a high bar for us all and should inspire us to greater things. That's the thing about Wick Man of the Year. It kind of does that...

Joey - Grip and Grins

Wickman has noticed a striking similarity between the photos in the last three posts. Joey Ewen is a pro at award giving and the old "Grip and Grin" photo. Textbook.

2009 Player of the Year

The three nominations for Player of the Year were Kammy, Richard Cole and Dominic Lown. In a year when Kamran scored more than 600 runs and Dom Lown outbowled Saqqy it was going to take an extra special season from one player to knock them off the top perch.

Richard Cole's stats for the year are seriously impressive. Five fifties a five for and a four for (someone dropped his five for on this occasion behind the stumps. Who is Wickman?) were highlights, but this correspodent was more impressed this year with the manner of Richard's performances. At Old Paulines in mid season he scored 44 out of 50 on the board chasing an awkward total. His 90 not out against the same oppo at home belittled a slightly more taxing chase. This was really dominant, fluent batting which broke opposition hearts. Well done Rich. Well deserved. Vintage stuff.

[This photo's a bit blurred. Tongy was obviously emotional - Ed]

2009 Batsman of the Year

The winner:

Kamran Raza

630 runs at an average of 45 meant that once again, Kammy was one of the most feared batsman in Division 1 of the Surrey Fuller’s League. Seemingly able to be amongst the runs every week, his six league 50s were eclipsed by a memorable 102 not out off just 80 balls to help the 1st XI chase down 250 against Godalming. Kammy capped a memorable year by being elected as the new captain of the 1st XI for 2010 season.

The nominees:

Richard Cole

Richard has led from the front this year opening the batting on every one of his 14 league appearances, amassing a huge 553 runs in the process. Not even having all his kit stolen halfway through the year managed to halt his pursuit of league honours and an impressive 42.5 proudly sits him at the top of the Division 5 averages.

Imran Rashid

Imran’s maiden league season was one to remember. Described as the most consistent player in the club, 3 excellent league 50s didn’t tell the whole story as he made 9 other scores between, 25 & 40. Imran “The Wall” Rashid will look to build on those impressive starts and kick on in 2010.

2009 Bowler of the Year

The Winner:

Dominic Lown

Taking the new ball and leading from the front Lownsy sent down 122.3 overs in the 2009 league season returning 28 wickets at miserly average of just 13.6. However the highlight of a fantastic year had to be his 8/15 when he almost single handedly dismissed a more than capable Caterham 3rd XI back to the hutch before 2:30 on a Saturday afternoon. This was unsurprisingly the best return for the division, the third best for any Surrey Champ division and also saw him outbowl one Saqlain Mushtaq!

The nominees:

Richard Cole

What an amazing all-round season from Richard Cole as he added the title of being leading wicket taker, to leading run scorer for the 2nd XI in 2009. 28 wickets at an average of 16.36 showed great control and skill in what was for him, a season never to forget.

Phil Linter

The most improved performer in the 2009 season, Phil Linter is another success of the Hampton Wick Colts & Consolidated PR production line. Adding more control to an extra yard of pace, Phil Linter “away swung” his way to 23 league wickets.

2009 Fielder of the Year

The Winner:

Marc Holland

The most high profile of all the summer transfers, Ol' Soft Gloves re-re-joined the Wick in 2009 after arriving on a “Bosman” from near neighbors, Old Paulines. Taking the gloves for the 1xi was a challenge he relished and glowing reports of textbook glove work and nimble feet were backed up with 14 dismissals in 13 league starts. A great comeback year, from the comeback king!

The nominees:

Derek Soppitt

A fantastic fielder who always seems to be in the running for club honors at the end of any season. Ol' old hands has made the position of Mid-Off his own and is a captain’s dream due to his excellent availability and constant encouragement for the bowlers. Delboy managed to grab 9 dismissals this season with 8 catches and 1 run-out showing the youngsters the way and proving that age “ain’t, nothing but a number”

James Cameron

11 catches were plucked by the paws of Cimmy G this season making him a fielder for all opposition batsmen to avoid. Witnesses claim they saw him grab rasping drives and powerful cuts hit so hard that they had no idea how they stuck! Two words… jelly beans! Unfortunately Ol' sticky fingers is presently plucking his way around Asia. But fear not the newly elected 3xi skipper will be back in time for the start of the 2010 season and sends this message in his absence… Believe!

HWRCC 2009 Club Dinner

It's that time of year again. The dust has settled in DBW's kitchen. There's a winter tour on somehwere where the Sun shines every day. Contact with Wick members is limited to early morning grunting at unshaven hollow-eyed worker drones heading up to town to earn some shillings to spend in the bar next Summer.

Out of the gloom of a December so wet that even golf seems a chore, suddenly there was a bright light. Yes - the Wick end of season dinner happened on Saturday. Long enough after the season to allow rancour at poor umpiring decisions on club day to pass aside and soon enough before Christmas for it to be the first big seasonal engagement for most, the Dinner kicked off December in fine style.

Dom Lown and David Fudge organised a fine Wick evening which has gone down already as one of Matty G's favourite Wick nights - which is praise indeed as Matty G has had many legendary Wick nights. The Wick herself looked fabulous. Many, many thanks to Dom's mum who tirelessly worked at all the little things to make the place look special. Dom's catering folk turned up three courses of very edible food, attractively priced and tasty wine washed it down and Harry Copeland's "Let Get Science" entertained us until the early hours. For some the hours were earlier than others...

The evening is in part to celebrate achievements on the field (of which more later) and to recall deeds of derring do (and some not quite so derring) and partly to swell the coffers of the club after a Summer of expense. Dom and David - with kind assistance from Mickey McMahon, the brothers Webster, Coley and others including Golby who provided prizes, managed to make an excellent return on the evening, clearing four figures in the silent auction and bar profits alike. Well done to Cranesy for securing the much competed for Wentworth Golf Day with the Websters for an eye-watering sum.

This important evening really makes a difference to our club - and what better way to spend an evening's fund raising than in the company of friends. Thanks Dom and Dave for a great evening. Wickman's levels of Wickness, dangerously low after an Autumn away, have been recharged... along with Club funds...

[A sobering moment as Cranesy realises his Wentworth dream will come true - Ed]

Cobwebs

Ooo. Blimey. Not been here in a while. Hmmm. Spring clean. Must try harder etc.

Expect a flurry of posts soon...

Where's Wickman Junior? And who is Wickman?

Blogged Too Soon

Oh dear. Get well Banger.

Trezzer and Somerset

Perhaps the most human story from The Champions League tournament is the return of Marcus Trescothick to the subcontinent. Wickman recently read Banger's autobiography Coming Back To Me and it's a harrowing tale of a cricketer coming to terms with mental fallibility. Weighed down by sickness, confined to hotel rooms, struggling with Indian poverty and tortured by the divide between his duty to his family and to his team mates and country, Trescothick is almost destroyed by severe depression. As his life unravells he makes a series of errors of judgement and his life spirals giddily out of control.

To see him back on the World stage (almost) and functioning as a cricketer is a real pleasure. His achievements for England are all the more special for the paucity of one day resources (in particular) that we now have. Getting through to the next stage of this tournament will hopefully give him two more chances to set his stamp on proceedings and Wickman for one hopes we see more of the fireworks he has become known for around the world in the next week.

The book's well worth a look at for those of us who've thought that playing International cricket would be one long dream of run scoring, foreign sunshine and days out at Lords.

Wickman's Travels and Travails

To Sandown with Il Presidente Bob, Chairman Mao and the fast disappearing Alison. It's League Dinner time. Wickman is looking forward to a pleasant evening with friends if not the tedium of another awards ceremony at Sandown. At least in previous years (admittedly Fullers years) there were a couple of almost off colour comedians to liven up the evening and Wickman has fond memories of Paul Allott.

There's no real ale (come on Shepherd Neame - surely some of your fantastic Late Red or a pint or two of Spitfire could have been rustled up?) which puts Wickman in a slightly less than generous frame of mind. The food isn't too bad although at £35 a pop something slightly more exciting than a profit making soup could have been assembled for the starter. And as Alison pointed out (only someone who is as svelte as her would have noticed) there was no chocolate with the coffee. The reasonable bottle of red (retails in most off licences for about £8) had been scandalously marked up to £26.

Hearts sink as Henry Kelly is confirmed as guest speaker. We're informed that he is passionate about cricket so hearts are slightly buoyed. Sadly though the evening descends into anarchy as he seems to be off his game somewhat. The awards are handed out with him burbling along and failing to pronounce many of the team names. Handling a terrible job terribly Kelly then attempts to restore order by asking for respect for the winners from those assembled. This goes down badly with the crowd who are less than impressed with him turning up late in the first place.

There's then a terribly compered Q&A session with the Surrey hierarchy of Gus someone, Chris Adams and Ian Salisbury. None is, shall we say, a natural speaker. Kelly reads out a ridiculous question about a left handed 12 year old (Wickman thinks) and the room is nonplussed and begins to talk amongst itself as a host of rubbish questions are answered badly by the by now slightly worried panel.

The Q&A session goes horribly wrong. Adams tries to play the respect card by telling us that our brave boys are fighting in other countries. Somehow Kelly accuses the audience of being drunk. Someone else asks why Surrey encourages the best colts to join central training and then tries to poach them to better clubs. There is uproar when the question is ducked. There is some heckling cum sledging and then someone borrows the mic to ask how much Kelly is being paid. He asks the questioner how much he has had to drink and the room has been lost for good.

There is an attempt to restore order but things have gone too far. The organisers failing to apologise for serving up some obviously un-rehearsed tosh, an attempt to get Kelly back to the stage is met with little enthusiasm (a show of hands is demanded to coax the by now highly embarrassed guest speaker back to the stage - five hands go up from 500). The evening descends into a post-mortem and carriages arrive at 11.30.

Apparently the Fullers lot have booked Aggers. Wickman quite fancies a bit of that. Anyone who has played cricket at a decent level, can talk cricket, interview Lily Allen and who tweets more than Wickman must be all right. But Wickman will be thinking at least twice before going to another Surrey League dinner. Wickman spoke to some veterans of the event (they'd picked up a major award but only three of them came to the awards - we pick up second place and 30 of us turn up). They said "this year was really bad, a bit of a shame that Kelly wasn't allowed to speak, but its this bad every year".

Let's face it. 95% of the audience has been at work all week. They want a couple of beers, a vat of wine and a good laugh. As about 60 per cent of the tickets are purchased as part of our membership of the League - so to an extent we have to go to offset the cost to the club - the evening needs to be well organised, hosted and delivered. Most of us work in jobs and industries where the shambolic organisation and ridiculous compereing would have cost us our jobs. There was no good laugh on Friday.

Maybe some of the catcalls, ironic clapping and bronx cheers will convince the organisers to pay someone to do the job properly next year. Or post out the trophies. They may never get there with industrial relations as they are but it saves the red faces all round that we suffered on Friday.

Strauss unsure....

Andrew Strauss is sending out some odd signals out at the moment. Wickman Junior thinks he may be getting a little tired after having written Testing Times - a book that, incidentally, was cruelly overlooked at this year's Booker Prize awards. It's a sad indictment on the state of the nation's literary portfolio when a book about Oliver Cromwell (a bloke who's been dead for over 350 years) can pip some of the best cricketing, and can i suggest more relevant, publishing we are seeing at the moment from Gilchrist and the like. Go figure. I defy anyone who's ever read "Out of my comfort zone" from Steve Waugh, to say that it shouldn't be a part of every English syllabus in classrooms across the country. But I digress....

Speaking about the next stage in England's journey, Strauss said this...

"We have a busy summer of cricket before the Ashes in Australia so there's a lot of cricket ahead," he told BBC Radio Five's Sportsweek programme.

"The key is to make sure the players are fresh but at the same time you don't want to be tinkering with the side too much.

"The Bangladesh tour is quite a useful one in our development in terms of playing on sub-continental wickets...I'm not going to say I am definitely on it at this stage and I'm not going to say I'm definitely not on it, we'll just need to see where we are as a side."

"I can't guarantee anything, I don't know what will happen in the next few months. We only select one tour at a time. The South Africa tour is a massive one and then we've got Bangladesh in February and March. When we select that we'll sit down and see where we are as a side with injuries, niggles and all that stuff. We'll sit down and decide the best course of action."

Take his first point about it being a "busy summer of cricket, so there will lots of cricket ahead". Thank you for pointing this out Andrew. Wickman Junior can't imagine how this talk would go down in the dressing room. Perhaps there are players in the team who thought it would be a fairly quiet summer of cricket? Also - if it is going to be a busy summer of cricket, were some expecting to play tennis instead?! Of course there is going to be a lot of cricket ahead Andrew - i'd expect that in a "busy" summer of cricket.

Then this: "I can't guarantee anything. I don't know what will happen in the next few months". What?! Aren't England touring South Africa soon - that will surely take care of the next few months. Wickman Junior has even read a fixtures list to confirm this. Has Andrew not been told? Maybe this hasn't been "guaranteed" as Andrew puts it, and he's asked players to rock up to Heathrow to see if they can get on a flight to South Africa, in the hope of getting a game. But looking at his next comment: "The South Africa tour is a massive one and then we've got Bangladesh in February and March. We only select one tour at a time", would seem to suggest he does know what will happen in the next few months, and that England have selected more than one tour at a time. It's totally baffling. And, you know, talk like this from the England skipper only fosters uncertainty. That can't be a good thing.

Wickman Junior

At it Again

Straussy is back in town with a book to launch. Which was the perfect opportunity for him to mangle some English language. Let's call it Captinglish. Here he boldly comments that England should not rest on euphoria.

Nice. But how do you rest on euphoria? The accepted linguistic avenue to go down in these sorts of circumstances is not to rest on ones laurels. Wickman reckons any resting that might have been happening probably stopped happening when we lost six ODIs in a row to Australia followed by one each to NZ and Australia. But as KP mentioned last week there are two momentums, Test and One Day. Maybe you can have Test and One Day laurels too? And if you do work out how to rest on euphoria, maybe you can rest on Test euphoria even if you have run out of One Day euphoria.

[This parrot was resting on euphoria and it didn't work out well - Ed]

Suits You...

Congratulations to the Aussies for winning two one sided games in a row to win the ICC Champions Trophy. But good God. When are they going to wear those hideous blazers ever again?

Brett Lee has his own suit label. Wickman recalls in fact that he even has his own suit shoppe back home. Wickman thinks that even he wouldn't turn out in this gopping number. It makes Roger Federer's desperately naff Wimbledon attire look positively natty.

[Here's Brett Lee in one of his own creations. Ooooo. Ed]