Sixty players and supporters gathered at The Bedford Hotel for the Sidmouth Cricket Club annual awards dinner, which were very well organised by Anthony Griffiths.

Thanks, and wine, were delivered to the umpires, scorers and groundsman for doing such a great job and enabling everyone to enjoy their cricket throughout 2017.

In terms of the 2017 playing honours, the 1st XI bowling award was presented to Scott Barlow while the 1st XI batting honour went to Josh Bess.

In the 2nd XI awards, Charlie Dibble received the bowling award and Isaac Thomas picked up the batting honour.

Jordan Fowler received the 3rd XI bowling honour with Graham Munday took home to the 3rd XI batting award.

The club fielder of the year trophy went to Isaac Thomas, while Tom Moore picked up the young player award. Matt and Kate Cooke were named winners of the club person award and the player’s player honour went to Josh Bess.

Speeches were given on behalf of each of the three teams by Luke Bess, Nick Mansfield and Rob Fowler. During those speeches, Champagne moments of the season were awarded for each team to the following: the third XI award went to John Goodwin for travelling from Heathrow to play only to find that he wasn’t keeping wicket!; the 2nd XI award went to Fionn Wardrop for sending Anthony Dibble from slip to fine leg to allow batsmen and fielders some respite from his unique brand of sledging; and the 1st XI award went to Anthony Griffiths for his celebrations when catching old foe, Bobby Dawson from Exmouth. Griff joined Luke Bess on stage to give a memorable re-enactment of the moment!

Matt and Kate Cooke’s contribution in 2017 is particularly worth mentioning.

At a time when cricket as a whole is struggling with declining player numbers, Matt and Kate led two initiatives which brought large numbers of new players into the club. Kate organised wine and wickets, which saw upwards of 25 ladies enjoying Friday evening training and Sunday softball festivals, while Matt took ownership of the All Stars, tempting 67 five- to eight-year-olds to start their cricketing life at Sidmouth.

The evening also saw a successful raffle with the prize being a bat kindly donated by Devon County Sports, which raised more than £100 for club funds.

Sidmouth chairman Fionn Wardrop said of the draw outcome: “The winner of the bat was Charlie Dibble, who can now replace his faithful Gunn and Moore (Tim Robinson original) from 1981. Charlie’s old bat was a remarkable investment, scoring more than 75 runs in its 36 years of use. It’s safe to predict that his new Kookaburra Beast will see him through to retirement.”