The ECB Cricket Collective Awards 2024 – Gloucestershire Cricket Foundation
Yesterday I attended an awards ceremony at Gloucestershire County Cricket Ground, while Glos were playing in the OD cup against Leicestershire. I was there as the plus one with my dad who had been nominated for an award.
The award categories are chosen by the England & Wales Cricket Board (ECB) and each county in the country is asked to give them out accordingly.
Emphasis Placed on Tackling Climate Change
Not knowing what to expect I was particularly delighted to see there was a Tackling Climate Change Award. Recognition from The ECB that sports clubs need to play their part in tackling the climate crisis.
Down Hatherley won the award for Gloucestershire this year and will provide inspiration for other cricket clubs in the area. They have done all manner of things in the last year or so including installing solar panels (which also has the benefit of saving the club money on bills), harvesting rain water to use for irrigation, promoting cycling and sustainable travel to and from games, and plenty more.
There was a Safe Hands Award won by Katie Medhurst who implemented things at her club such as making coaches have to wear their lanyards with updated CBS status on them to give children and parents confidence in their safety whilst being coached.
I was sat on a table with a guy whose daughter I had given some specialist leg spin coaching to a few years back. His name is Paul Maggs and he won the Champions of Girls Cricket Award for some amazing work he’s done in Quedgely to massively increase the number of girls participating in the part of Gloucester.
The Main Award
The final award of the ceremony was the one we there for: The Lifetime Achiever Award. For his services to Gloucestershire Seniors cricket the prize was picked up by my dad (20 sec vid).
As he explained in his interview afterwards (2 min vid) over the last two decades he’s taken seniors cricket in Gloucestershire from one over 50s team to four over 50s, four over 60s and an over 70s side, where the county also provides the captain for the England team in each of the three age categories. The over 70s captain has just led the England team to win the World Cup.
It was a proud moment and very well deserved recognition for an incredible amount of work he’s put in to the sport.
You can view some images of the day here, here, here and here.
Full List of Winners
The Cricket Collective Inspired to Play 2024 Winner – Russell Fry
The Cricket Collective Rising Star Award 2024 Winner – Leni-Rae Readman
The Cricket Collective Safe Hands Award 2024 Winner – Katie Medhurst
Connecting Communities 2024 Winner – Gloucestershire Action for Refugees and Asylum Seekers (GARAS)
The Cricket Collective Game Changer 2024 Winner – Seb Vamplew
The Cricket Collective Volunteer Grounds Management Team of the Year 2024 – Chipping Sodbury CC
The Cricket Collective Tackling Climate Change 2024 Winner – Down Hatherley CC
The Cricket Collective Cricket Innovator 2024 Winner – Alastair Andrews
The Cricket Collective Unsung Hero 2024 Winner – Guy Stirling Lee
The Metro Bank Champion of Girls Cricket 2024 Winner – Paul Maggs
The Cricket Collective Growing the Game 2024 Winner – Graham Wilcox
The Cricket Collective Lifetime Achiever 2024 Winner – Len Attard