The BCEW Johnners Trust development festival at Leicester university sports ground brought together six teams this year for a full round robin event across Saturday 7th & Sunday 8th September.
Players enjoyed meeting those from other parts of the country with all the regions having two teams. From the south there were the Berkshire Stags and Metro Devils, the midlands were represented by Birmingham Stars and Staffordshire Wolves, while from the north came Yorkshire Vikings and the new team from 2024 Greater Manchester Falcons.
The event is about participation and most clubs’ teams included players who were on debut or had little experience. With five rounds to play games were to be twelve overs a side with two of those bowled by totals but the weather tried its best to scupper the competition in the best tradition of an English summer.
After round one had been completed under grey skies that did at least keep the aeroplanes away, the rain continued and the lunch break had to be extended. One pitch was taken out of action so despite reducing the game length to eight overs per side the first day ended with two scheduled matches not played.
Sunday morning showers again delayed the start – with the unused pitch from Saturday afternoon the first to be playable and so with matches now reduced to five overs a side the final Saturday games were completed first. As this was underway the sun did come out and blue sky appeared to dry off the other pitches so that although it was a shame games were just five overs a side all the games were completed so players were able to enjoy playing teams they would otherwise not meet.
Some fantastic cricket was played with teams keen to show their abilities and win games, as well as offer the all important opportunities to less experienced players. The Champagne moment this year was Conna Jeffs of Birmingham Stars hat trick, with two wickets bowled after a catch taken by the Stars’ skipper, Hassan Ali. Greater Manchester Falcons, who hope to join the BCEW Development league in 2025, won all their games and were followed in the league table by Birmingham Stars, Berkshire Stags, Yorkshire Vikings and Metro Devils, then Staffordshire Wolves.
The event ended with celebration of awards with both the southern and midlands development league champions present – Berkshire Stags and Staffordshire Wolves. There were some individual BCEW development seasonal awards handed out but then came the important spirit of cricket award for the weekend which was won by Staffordshire Wolves.
John Garbett then presented two Charles Ronayne awards for outstanding contribution to VI cricket; these went to Lynne Newell for the huge effort put in
to establish and support the Worcestershire Elizabethans and Doug Beebe for umpiring while needing to travel long distances, support of the women’s game, with even more travel, and fundraising with rollerball.
Fittingly the final act of the day was the rollerball as the tournament player trophies had been misplaced in transit. The following players will be getting awards once this little glitch is resolved:
Champagne Moment: Conna Jeffs of Birmingham Stars for taking a hat trick
Best Newcomer: Kia Horner of Berkshire Stags
Best Female Player: Carlie Dagg of Yorkshire Vikings
Best Total Player: Atif Umer of Berkshire Stags
Best Low Partial player: Oliver Frost of Yorkshire Vikings
Best Partial Player: Tosif Akhtar of Greater Manchester Falcons
