Bessborough Cricket Club News story


Chilli Tastes Sweet Victory

13 Jan 2013

CHILLI TASTES SWEET VICTORY
By James Wheeler

Rohan 'Chilli' Karkhanis (pictured) was the big winner at our end of season awards night at the back end of November, picking up the coveted first eleven player of the year and bowler of the year awards.
 
The clubhouse was looking at its best, even if the weather outside was quite frankly dreadful as the who’s who of club legends arrived for the 2012 awards. Before the main part of the evening, a delightful Indian buffet was served. Organised by the club’s favourite Kenyan, Adil Parker, the curry was big winner with the quality and quantity of the food going down very well with the crowd, even if some members found one of the curries slightly ‘hotter’ than expected.
 
After dinner had been consumed and the clubhouse cleared it was time for the awards and taking the stage first was our Barbarians Twenty20 captain James Wheeler. After a brief summary of the season which included a few funny stories it was on with the awards. The first award of the night was the ‘Barbarians’ Outstanding Achievement Award’ which was won by Andy Carr for a brilliant 85 at West Harrow in June, the innings was even more special considering we were playing on a poor wicket and our next top scorer was Wheeler with 14. For his efforts, Geezer was given a brand new pair of Slazenger Navy batting pads. The second Barbarians award went to Richard Clarke for most sixes for the Barbarians in 2012. He struck eight maximums last season which was three more than Carr. The final Barbarians award was their Player of the Year award. The winner was the player which collected the most man of the match votes throughout the season. It was neck and neck all year between Clarke and Carr and the end result saw Richard pip Geezer to the 2012 award with 24 votes to 21.
With the Barbarians awards finished it was onto the Saturday awards and started with the Fourth Eleven. 

Captain Simon Heaney took the stage and summed up the season. There was some good results and some bad, however there was plenty to build on for next year. Young bowler Oscar Farr was named by Simon as the Fourth Eleven Player of the Year for his 14 wickets at an incredible average of only 5.43 and his tally included best figures of 5-17 v Crouch End. While Simon was onstage it was also his responsibility to present another Fourth Eleven bowler, Ravi Vyas with the richly deserved Most Improved Player award for 2012.

Next up was the Third Eleven report delivered by cricket chairman Raj Kanagaraj. Once again a few disappointing results stopped our Thirds mounting a serious promotion challenge. It is hoped with a bit of luck and a bit more consistency we can progress and push for promotion in 2013. All-rounder Tanushan Mahendran picked up the Third Eleven Player of the Year for some consistent performances.

Following on from Raj was Second Team Skipper Phil Bush who delivered a comical and well rehearsed speech on the fortunes of the Second’s last summer. On the whole it was a very good season for Bushy and his merry men who finished comfortably in the top half and had a outside chance of promotion. There were many good performers for the second eleven, not least by Bush himself who finished 9 runs shy of 500 in the League. However Bushy chose his vice-captain and opening partner Adil Parker as his player of the season. Dildo scored 380 runs at an average of 25 and took an astonishing 25 victims in his 17 games.

The last and certainly not least of our captains, Danny Hawes took centre stage to deliver the first eleven report. He reflected on an encouraging season after relegation the previous year and he also made clear that a couple of sloppy early season defeats really did cost us promotion back to the MCCL at the first attempt. Key performers such as Ramesh Gunalan, Ian Barrie and Neal Patel were singled out but in his eyes there was only one winner for player of the season. Left arm tweaker Rohan Karkhanis with 29 victims at an average of just over 13 was the deserving of this honour as he won the First Eleven Award for the first time.

While Danny was on stage he also handed out another couple of awards, firstly unsurprisingly Rohan picked up the Bowler of the Year award to go with his First Eleven gong. His 34 wickets saw claim the Bowlers’ award for the second time in four years. Danny also presented Richard Edmands with the Captains’ Award for his performances and attitude in the past season, a richly deserved award for our treasurer.

The Duck Cup was presented to Danny’s younger brother Sammy, who despite an excellent debut season in senior cricket accumulated 6 ducks in 17 knocks. Batsman Mark Emanuel who scored 488 runs including two hundreds was named as Newcomer of the Year but unfortunately he wasn’t able to be at the ground to collect his award.

Bushy returned to the stage to present two of the final three awards. Firstly for an outstanding 30 victims in all comps including 19 stumpings, Second Eleven gloveman Adil Parker was named as Fielder of the Year for the second time in three years.

The coveted Batsman of the Year award for once had many contenders. Bushy as leading run scorer with 734 runs which included nine fifties while Andy Carr and Adil Parker also had shouts at the batting award. However the selection committee picked Danny Hawes for his tally of 596 runs in all comps at 42 as our batsman of 2012. His Saturday League figures are even more impressive with an average of 50 including four 50s with a best of 98 v Alexandra Park in August.

The final award and arguably the most important was the Robbie Cup for services to the club off the field in the past 12 months. There were many members who would have deserved the award but the man who was chosen did so much for the club in 2012. Bar manager Jerry Halfhide deservingly picked up the award for the first time for his outstanding services to the club.
After the awards finished, the music was cranked up and drinks continued to flow. Alex Irani and his helpers on the day deserve much praise for their efforts. Hopefully in 12 months time we will have more silverware to celebrate.