TAMWORTH played host to the Country Cricket NSW annual general meeting and annual awards function on Saturday and there was good news for some locals.
Among the good news, Tamworth First XI captain Tom Groth picked up his Country Player of the Year award – admittedly several weeks after he was told he had won it.
Tamworth players have made a habit of winning that prize after Jeff Cook (2007-08) and Josh Hazlewood (2008-09) received it in recent years.
Another highlight from a local perspective was the official presentation of the Bradman Cup to the Central North U16s, who won the trophy last season.
And the other was a special presentation to former Tamworthian John Sullivan who was the boss at Country Cricket NSW for a number of years.
“We did a presentation for him for all the things he has done and all his efforts over 17 years with Country Cricket NSW,” Country coordinator Bruce Whitehouse said.
There were a number of other awards and presentations.
Female Country Player of the Year went to Keeghan Tucker from Parkes and Kookaburra Country Colts Player of the Year was Declan Hoare from Nyngan.
There was also a presentation to Illawarra star Graeme Batty as the NSW player of the tournament at the Australian Country Championships in Geelong.
There was an award for groundsman of the year, which went to Owen Wright from Wollongong and the media award, received by Rob Crawford from the South Coast Register.
There were also presentations of trophies to Illawarra (senior championships and Kookaburra Cup) and Central Coast (colts).
The night was well attended at Wests Diggers and some of the hierarchy of Cricket NSW was there, including CEO Dave Gilbert and chairman Dr Harry Harinath.
“It was a great night,” Whitehouse said.
“Special thanks to the Psarakis family – Terry and Karen – for all their help.”
Earlier in the day the annual general meeting saw Ian Hogg re-elected as chairman and John Moriarty as deputy chairman.
Meanwhile, on Friday, Cricket Australia confirmed it would be replacing its old 14-person board with a new nine-seat commission featuring one representative from each state and three independent members.
Gunnedah’s Mike Silver, who was on the old board, did not stand for the new one.