I hope you're not missing us too much. It's not even been a week yet.
The end of the season was marked aptly with a weekend where all sections were involved, and we hosted our first awards ceremony, Colts Dinner. The biggest one ever. Now, it was our first time on the top table in the biiiiiig tent, and we knew from previous years the decibels were ridiculous, but surely it couldn't be louder than Colts Day could it? Oh yes it could... Especially with the U11s in the room...
Our first point of the evening to address was for Chairman Nuti to honour our dearly departed ex-President Jim Denyer, who was a huge supporter of not only the Colts but all sections across the Club, and the night was proudly in his honour at bequest of him and his family, Chairman Nuti giving a hugely emotional speech.
The first award of the night was the Colts Chairman's Award, and here follows Colts Chairman Felix's speech:
"This season saw an unprecedented 140 Colts sign on, with an additional 40-odd Bluecaps. For the uninitiated our Bluecaps are school year 1 & 2, so we are sure you can imagine the organising and patience required to run their training sessions. For the last few years Kate Barnes has taken on this Herculean challenge and you need only to see the children arriving at 5.00pm on a Friday full of excitement and anticipation to appreciate what a wonderful job she has done. For many, Bluecaps is the first taste of cricket and it’s essential that that experience is nurturing and inspires them to continue at the club. With her dedicated team of helpers, Kate has made the Bluecaps a very welcoming, fun and at times chaotic group to be a part of - if anyone deserves their free Coaching Pint at the end on the session…it’s Kate. We have no doubt that the Bluecaps of today will be with us long into the future thanks to their first experience of cricket at Chertsey CC with Kate."
Highlights of the evening included the Blueberries and Bluebirds in attendance, the former receiving their first set of awards, and we honoured the Colts who have stepped up to make Senior cricket debuts when called upon, you will have seen us raving about that talented lot in Notable Mentions every week and we are completely in awe of not just them (the thirteen who were in the room) but all the Colts who played this season, we can't wait to see what you all do next. We also honoured our league winners, the U10s, U12s, and U14s, as well as Arthur Walmsley & Ed Marsh who made inroads into the County circuit this season.
Big love to Colts Chairman Felix and his team who helped to get the night together, it was a blast.
Here are the awards winners in full:
Blueberries:
Best Batter - Jessica Moseley
Best Bowler - Evelyn Sharp
Best All-Rounder - Lexie Fewell
U9s - 28 x club medals
U10s: Development Team
Best Batter - Oscar Appleby
Best Bowler - Josh Wells
Most Improved - Leo Toogood
U10s: League Team
Best Batter - Zach Edwards
Best Bowler - Scott Russell
Most Improved - Oscar Toogood
U10s Player of the Season - Max Toogood
U11s:
Best Batter - Stanley Clark
Best Bowler - Findlay Fortescue
Most Improved - Lottie Sewell
U12s:
Best Batter - Sienna Austin
Best Bowler - Freya Edwards
Player of the Season - Adam Osborne
U13s:
Best Batter - Luke Russell
Best Bowler - Aidan Cassin
Player of the Season - Josh Hawksley
U14s:
Best Bowler - Josh Fyfe
Best Batter - Ethan Austin
Player of the Season - James Pearson
U15s:
Best Bowler - Mae Pender-Grieb
Best Batter- Alex Fenner-Melham
Player of the Season - Henry Edwards
Colts Chairman Award 2021 - Kate Barnes
*note the significance of the term "Batter"...
How apt too that we recently had an email from a lovely lady called Christine from the Extra Care Charity Shop in Davyhulme, Manchester as they had been donated some trophies with the name of an A Axon on, and she was intrigued about him, so after a bit of digging, we found the trophies belonged to “Sandy” Axon, who had won these awards, the Collins Cup (the 1st XI bowling award) four times, 1962, 64, 65, & 67 (thanks Wellsy for your help there) and these were the trophies she had. Christine very kindly posted the trophies to us late last week to reunite them with the Club and especially just in time for Colts Dinner, and now they are now living on the shelf with other award winners.
We asked around about Sandy, and we got this from Vice President Fred Norris:
“I can remember in my very first game for Chertsey which I believe was either in 1959 or 1960 and we were playing at Ickenham. I joined Sandy at the wicket with the score a rather unpromising nine for nine and thanks to Sandy we moved the score on to 28 all out. I think I finished nought not out. This was in reply to Ickenham's score of only 64 which I believe saw Sandy take 8 wickets.
He was a very fine fast/medium bowler and a hard hitting batsman who I'm sure captained the side on a number of occasions.
He was an extremely accomplished jazz performer who stood in with the Temperance Seven several times. He and his brother Rod played at Chertsey for a number of years and lived in the St Ann's Hill area near the Golden Grove. Apart from being a fine club cricketer he was a lovely engaging personality who helped me settle in as a shy teenager and he was greatly missed when he left.”
Top story eh? Thanks to Fred and Mick for their help - you made a Mancunian lady very happy...
Notable Mentions
The last weekend of the season saw everyone having a go - Ladies, Colts, and Seniors. So where did they feature and how did they get on?
The Ladies finished their season off in style with an inter-club game against the Bluebirds early on Saturday morning, the Ladies coming away victorious.
The Seniors indulged in a bit of final Saturday match frivolity - The Hat Game, which has now gone viral we'll have you know. The premise: each player wears a hat for the duration of the game and if a wicket goes down, all players must swap hats.
When the oppo Walton Wanderers arrived we thought we were in for a bit of a torrid time by the look of them, but with Chertsey batting first it became apparent quite quickly this may not be the case and finally some oppo we could have some fun with...
Enjoying the buffet bowling on show, the first wicket of Hugh Aish-Lyons (38) came when the score was on 100, with Captain Sam Toone having just made his half century, Ravi Patel (20) left him on 216-3 and he motored on through the innings to final reach his century and best score ever for Chertsey of 117*, pipping Felix Reisch's previous top score of the season effort of 106* way back on the first weekend of the season. Good job they're friends...
In reply it was time to get the real hat game underway. Wickets fell frequently, which meant a lot of swapping, and after 5 overs the Wanderers found themselves 35-5 at the hands of Josh Fyfe, Dylan Pandya, and Ethan Austin, Arthur Walmsley passing the gloves to Hugh Aish-Lyons again (who has since declared he can have them back) and getting in on the act with two wickets. Captain Toone also bagged a wicket, and the win was secured within 24 overs.
Sunday's opposition were the chatty Woodford Green CC (Woodford hadn't had the hectic night we'd had before btw), a club possibly older the CCC (if there was such a Club - Hambleden will definately fact check that one). We had three Sunday debutants - Bluebirds Lilly Rowe, Bronwyn Mayne, and the U14s' Alex Ozer, as well as Charlie Eagles returning to the fray.
Alex Ozer went on to nab his first Sunday wicket and James Harrison grabbed two, including the valuable opener. #4 & 5 put on a stand of epic proportions though, posting 261-3 at the break. Opener & Captain Hugh Aish-Lyons looked in the kind of form he possessed last season, smashing it to all parts (luckily Suzi Q had moved her burger van this time) and Raj Bahbra nearly surpassed him with a bombastic 33. Some of the debutants also had a bat, Alex Ozer in at six, and Lilly Rowe finished off the 2021 season with Beardy Steve Reynolds for company at the crease. We didn't win, but it capped a great weekend to end on.
Saturday 18th - Sam Toone XI 216-6 v Walton Wanderers 91 a/o
Sam Toone 117*, Ethan Austin 3-16, Josh Fyfe 3-18
Sunday 19th - Sunday XI 146-7 v Woodside Green 261-3
Hugh Aish-Lyons 36, James Harrison 2-37
Tailender
A side effect of with the end of things - we have goodbyes and go wells to make. Ravi Patel steps down as Sunday Captain after last Sunday's match, and Stuart Chenery leaves his post as the Bluebirds coach after he became the first ever Ladies coach on their foundation back in 2012 also. Both have had a huge impact on their respective sections and leave big shoes to fill.
Go well...
