This was a great season for blind cricket with that nail biting final in the Primary Club Cup at Hove a great advert for the game which continues to flourish; with new club Hertfordshire Comets playing their first game against Berkshire Stags. There were more opportunities for players to try the international ball game with three games in London and four in Coventry, including that first ever 100 format for blind cricket. The spirit of cricket remains well respected in the game with the award winners this season being Kent Spitfires.
The grand totals for those important statistics for games, excluding friendlies, were:
- 19,498 runs scored – 4,057 in the national leagues, 11,334 in the development leagues and 4,107 in cup competitions
- 682 bowlers wickets taken – 180 in the national leagues, 387 in the development leagues and 115 in cup competitions
- 470 fielding wickets taken – 118 in the national leagues, 263 in the development leagues and 89 in cup competitions
The players making the biggest contributions to those totals were:
League Division One: Si Ledwith 156 runs, Phil Daniels 14 wickets, Dan Field 7 fielding wickets.
League Division Two: Tom Barton 362 runs & 8 fielding wickets, Sheraz Chohan 9 wickets.
Northern League: Shahzaib Haider 240 runs, Shah Miah 10 wickets & 12 fielding wickets, Harry Hood 12 fielding wickets.
Midland League: Danial Shahid 157 runs & 5 wickets, David Keeling 11 fielding wickets.
Southern League: Ben Williams 270 runs, Robert Sholto-Douglas-Vernon & Sam Hoskin 9 wickets each, with newcomer Deacon Finn taking 8 fielding wickets.
National cups: Matt Dean 456 runs, Mo Ghalib 12 wickets – including the record breaking 8 for 1 and Si Ledwith 5 fielding wickets.
Development T20 cup: Wasim Afridi 136 runs, Mohammed Junaid 5 wickets and Hassan Ali 7 fielding wickets.
There were some career milestones reached; the most impressive was for Dan Field of Sussex Sharks who is the third batter known to have 8,000 runs after Matt Dean and Luke Sugg; Dan also reached 200 fielding dismissals. Other batters milestones were Shah Miah & Tahseen Sabir reaching 4,000 runs, Mark Bond & Dave Allen reaching 2,000 runs, Bilal Akhtar & Shahzaib Haider reaching 1,000, with Shahzaib achieving this in just two seasons.
Ed Hossell joins Justin Hollingsworth, Rory Field and Luke Sugg in the 200 wickets club; while Sheraz Chohan reached 150 wickets, Arslan Sabir 100, with Sam Hoskin & Hassan Ali both passing 50. Matt Dean has 150 fielding dismissals – the second highest total, Rory Hossell, Arslan Sabir, Mo Ghalib & Mark Bond all passed 50.
The rain was rather effective in delaying the Primary Club Cup and also washed out all of the David Townley T20 finals day – the semi-finals and final will all have to be played in 2026.
Sadly funding was not available to run the development weekend at Leicester; BCEW know this is a season highlight for many and are seeking funding to enable this to run again in the future.
