Ottery St Mary’s clubhouse was full to the brim on Friday night, with the majority of the 140 or so junior members, and their parents, turning up for the end of season awards night.

Emma Webber, chairman of the Junior section of the cricket club, opened the evening, summarising the difficult season it had been due to the huge amount of rain, and thanking club chairman and groundsman, Rob Bradshaw-Smith, together with Ian Townsend and numerous helpers, for the enormous amount of work they had put in to preparing the wickets for over 100 matches. She also thanked Dawn Loud who had taken over the junior administration this season and done an excellent job.

The evening then moved on to reports and awards from each team manager.

?First up was Jon Mutter, reporting on the U11 team. Mutter commented on the excellent team spirit within the group and praised the two wicket keepers, Mark Redish and Megan Thompson-Summers. Awards went to Tom Jeacock for bowling, Tom Peters for batting, and the Manager’s Award went to Stephen Lilley, who had the second best batting and bowling average.

?U12 manager, Rob Southall-Brown, reported on a difficult season, and a team who were making good progress. Batsman of the Year went to Henry Mutter, the bowling trophy was awarded to Callum Park and the Manager’s Award was given to Jack Ellison.

?Will Katene was full of praise for the U13A team, having won nine of their 12 matches this year, and finishing runners up in the league and semi-finalists in the Devon Cup. A highlight of the season was beating the Haberdashers Aske team who visit Ottery on tour each year and traditionally bring a very strong team. The Batsman Award went to Billy Rudolph, who had scored 230 runs for the team at an average of 46. Bowling honours went to Ollie Reed who had taken 18 wickets at an average of 6.5. Manager’s Award went to Henry Mutter for his all round contribution to the team.

U10B manager, Guy Peters, was pleased with his very young team, especially when they had beaten the Ottery U10A team! Bowling honours were awarded to Oliver Wiltshire, Batting to Ethan Allen, and the Manager’s Award was given jointly to twins Ollie and Alex Glanville who, as the youngest members of the cub, are ones to watch for the future.

Steve Walker talked us through the U10A season who had ‘done the double’ over Sidmouth which met with a huge cheer from the crowd! The bowling award went to Ollie Brealy, batting to Lawrence Walker and the Manager’s Award was given to Robert Ross.

The U11 Hardball Pairs manager, Ian Jeacock, was proud of his team’s performance this summer, with a number of players moving into the 11-a-side team throughout the season, which is what hardball pairs is all about. They had completed all eight of their fixtures and finished third in their league. Bowler of the year was Aidan Harrison, the batsman honours went to Jack Dallyn who had recorded a 93 per cent strike rate, and the Manager’s Award went to Bradley Upchurch.

John Tierney reported on a season for the U13B team which had been pretty much wiped out by rain, having completed only three games. The bowling award was given to Albert Southall-Brown, who had taken a hat-trick, and the batting honours went to Tom Gardner, who had carried his bat in one of the matches.

The U15 team had an excellent season, reported Steve Loud. They had won the East Division of the League by over 100 points, and went on to beat West winners, Exmouth, by eight runs to be crowned East Devon League champions.

Special thanks went to Rob Bradshaw-Smith for preparing extra wickets for back matches to make this possible.

The batting award went to captain, Billy Reed, the bowling honours went to Tom Hinch and the Manager’s Award was given to Josh Loud.

For the first time this year, and following a successful ‘Chance to Shine’ programme, Ottery had a girls team. Player of the year for the girls was Bernie Voce, who has worked extremely hard on her technical skills and should have a bright future in the game.

Report and pictures by Emma Webber and Dawn Loud.