THE Port City Leagues Magpies Cricket Club held their presentation night at the Port City Bowling Club last weekend with Ian Dickson being named the Bill Neasby Club Player of the Year for his stellar season, which included picking up 23 wickets with an average of 12.70 and scoring 627 runs at an average of 52.25. Dickson also won the fourth-grade bowling awards and the player of the year.
The Jack Walkley Clubperson of the Year was presented to third-grade premiership-winning captain Greg Hall for the huge amount of work he did off the field in various roles. However, he also received the trophies for third-grade Swoopers player of the year and highest batting average.
Club stalwart Ian Hughes received the biggest cheer on the night after picking up the president’s award for his efforts behind the stumps with a record 26 catches playing wherever and whenever required shifting between the top three grades.
The rookie of the year award was presented to Kade Fens who stepped up from fourth-grade last year to play a vital role at the top of the batting order in the minor premiership-winning second-grade side and scoring more than 300 runs during the year, while the junior player of the year was hotly contested with Jack Steinmetz edging out Sam Frecklington and Kyle Blanch.
On top of receiving the HRDCA Player of the Year for the second successive season, Chris Cole also won the batting, bowling and player of the year awards in the Magpies first-grade side. B.J. Schneider with 508 runs and 20 wickets was the stand out as the second-grade player of the year and Rob Mooney took out the third-grade Strikers player of the year trophy. Other players who received multiple awards on the night were Clinton Cocking (thirds) and Michael Gordon (fourths) for their outstanding run-scoring abilities.
The Port City Leagues Magpies would like to personally thank all 105 players that took the field this season which allowed them to win the HRDCA club champions trophy and saw four of the five teams reach their respective grand finals, which included a premiership title and two minor premierships.
The first-grade ‘Pies should also be commended for reaching the preliminary final and on winning the May Kelly Twenty20 Cup and Beechwood 7s Tournament.
