By Paul Toplis
The fantastic support of the Johnners Trust enabled over 80 visually impaired cricketers to enjoy a weekend of twenty one matches at the Leicester University Sports Ground. Gathered from all over the country were teams from Lancashire, Somerset, Surrey and Bradford; along with a Staffordshire side with guest players from London based Metro Devils, a Berkshire team with guest players from Kent and a team combined of players from Dorset and Yorkshire.
The 2022 BCEW Johnners Trust Development Festival began with a reflection on the historic loss of Queen Elizabeth II with a minute’s silence to consider the example of selflessness and service she had set in our country for over 70 years. It is a similar spirit of friendship, fair play and support for all that underpins the development festival weekend.
There were nearly 3,000 runs scored and almost 100 wickets taken – for those who seek accuracy the exact numbers were 2,854 and 97; in a round robin competition where each team played all the others in matches of eight overs a side, with four rounds of matches played on Saturday and three on Sunday.
One interesting experiment was carried out during the competition with umpires calling “stop” when a ball was bowled particularly wide, near to the usually close in totally blind fielders, so that they would be in danger of being hit if the batter tried to hit the ball. This was in place of the “dead ball” then “wide ball” call and although at least one umpires was unsure about the experiment they thought it worked well after using it and said it had been welcomed by players. The intent was that “stop” was what was required in the situation and it was thought effective to make this the first call that required no cricket knowledge to be understood. “Wide ball” was then called and signalled to the scorers – after this experiment a BCEW rule change may be proposed for 2023.
On the field there were three teams – Bradford, Lancashire and Berkshire who all won five matches, while Surrey won three, Somerset two and Staffordshire one. The competition winners were Bradford who took one more wicket than Berkshire; but the real winners taking home the “spirit of Cricket” trophy were Somerset VICC who of those considered for the award by the weekend’s officials just sneaked ahead of the combined Dorset and Yorkshire side in what would have required a photo finish to separate the teams in a race.
A new trophy was the “champagne moment” for an achievement of excellence and there were two principal contenders a double wicket maiden for Liaqat Hussain of Bradford and a fantastic boundary six lofted over extra cover by Robert Sholto-Douglas-Vernon of Dorset. These achievements were mirrored by Luke Boulding of Staffordshire and Sam Hoskin of Berkshire but Liaqat’s feat was more impressive as he is a totally blind player. Sam’s matching success in getting 12 off one ball on Sunday came too late to generate the breakfast conversation the next day with those who had seen Rob’s shot saying how pleased the bowler had been to concede the 12 runs! That was what resulted in Rob taking the award.
The weekend ended with a celebration of excellence and effort with awards for players at the weekend:
Best new or emerging player: Brandon Little of Staffordshire
Best female player: Theresa Robberts of Surrey VICC
Best partial player Thomas Froud of Berkshire Stags
Best low partial player David Ellis of Somerset VICC
Best totally blind player Liaqat Hussain of Bradford & District.
There were also BCEW end of season awards for players taking part in the weekend, full details of all BCEW awards for this year will be announced via twitter, the BCEW website and on Play-Cricket over the next couple of weeks so do look out for this news.
The all important BCEW Spirit of Cricket award was given to the Yorkshire captain John Garbett, on behalf of his club.
As well as directing fair play and development in the Yorkshire side, and among other roles, John also organises the Leicester weekend for which he was thanked by all with a generous round of applause.
The final league table for the weekend:
Club Points Won Lost Wickets taken Runs scored
Bradford & District 21 5 1 21 404
Berkshire Stags 21 5 1 20 465
Lancashire Lions 21 5 1 11 483
Surrey VICC 15 3 3 8 419
Somerset VICC 12 2 4 13 361
Staffordshire Wolves 9 1 5 16 335
Dorset / Yorkshire 6 0 6 8 387