Jones honoured at Clifton awards

CLIFTON Cricket Club chairman Roger Jones rounded off a great year by being honoured with a lifetime achievement award at the clubs dinner and dance night.

The event, which took place at The Miraj Hotel last week, saw awards were presented to all sections of the club.

There was particular mention of the first team’s defending of the Marston’s Smooth Trophy and the ladies second team gaining promotion.

Whilst playing feats were recognised, the club also acknowledged efforts made by numerous volunteers in helping to run the club.

No presentation would be complete without honouring Clifton’s now ‘sung’ hero and chairman, Roger Jones, who was given the lifetime achievement award after 40 years of work for the club.

Jones narrowly missed out on being named unsung hero of the year at the BBC Sports Personalty of the Year Awards.

Reuniting the fearsome partnership of the 1980s, Anthony Mansfield presented Roger with the trophy, on an evening which also saw Anthony’s son Joe receive his centurion tie to commemorate an individual’s first 100 for the club.

This was particularly impressive as Joe’s first century was scored last year at the tender age of just 14.

Someone else who developed through the club’s juniors is Matt Wilson, and his excellent year with the first team resulted in him being named first XI player of the year.

Dan Nolan and Malcolm Earnshaw won the second and third XI players of the year for their consistent performances with the ball.

The overall club batting and bowling averages were won by two further members who have graduated through the junior section, with Nick Webster taking the batting honours and Steve Bembridge being the winner of the bowling averages.

Performance of the year went to Will Harvey for his two five wicket hauls for the first XI, whilst at the other end of the scale, Nick Hopewell was proudly honoured with the duck award.

As well as his tie, Joe Mansfield also walked away with the junior player of the year award, and Alex Wooliscroft was rewarded for his efforts captaining the Under-15s, and his progression into the first team, by being named young player of the year.

Almost every award for the men’s section went to players who are either with or played for the club’s youth section.

Nikki Hibberd and Laura Baker were recognised for their improvement for the women’s teams and celebrated the second team’s promotion.

Clubman of the year went to Webster for his efforts in many sections of the club, ranging from organising last years speaker dinner to leading the club’s ambitious ground redevelopment plans.

Jones’ efforts were recognised in a secret operation by the club in which it was mentioned he has single handidly improved the ground to a level where Derbyshire’s Academy now use Clifton for a number of games every year and national finals have been held at the Chapel Lane ground.

At the same time he recognised the potential of Clubmark and urged the club to become an accredited organisation almost five years ago, whilst also pushing the to become a Focus Club.