Awards for Scottish clubs and players

The annual Lloyds TSB Scotland Cricket Awards were handed out to the winners at a presentation ceremony at the Roxburghe Hotel in Edinburgh last night [Tuesday]. The awards covered many aspects of the game in Scotland, including individual players from the domestic and international game, league winners, umpires and groundsmen, the ‘fair play’ award and, finally, the junior and senior clubs of the year.

Three Scotland internationalists won awards in the Premier Division, with Dougie Lockhart taking the batting award, Paul Hoffmann the bowling award and Neil MacRae winning the all-rounder award. MacRae’s award was in recognition of his coaching of the Aberdeenshire team, as well as his own on-field performances.

In the lower divisions of the Lloyds TSB Scotland SNCL, the outstanding achievement was undoubtedly the bowling of Falkland player Aparjit Singh, who took 37 wickets at an amazing average of 5.49.

Scotland captain Gavin Hamilton took the international batting award (HK More Trophy), with team-mates Majid Haq and Jan Stander receiving the bowling and all- rounder prizes respectively. Neil McCallum took the players’ player-of-the-year award.

Aberdeenshire was acclaimed as the senior club of the year for the second successive season, following their league-and-cup double - in addition to their second team, the Mannofield XI, winning the Strathmore and Perthshire Union.

Largo CC, who play in the East of Scotland League, won the junior club award in recognition of their rapid development in the last few years based on an excellent youth set-up.

The full list of award winners is as follows:

Lloyds TSB Scotland Champions’ Flags

• Premier Division: Aberdeenshire CC
• First Division: Dunfermline CC
• Second Division: Falkland CC

Lloyds TSB Scotland Premier Division

• Batsman of the Year: Dougie Lockhart (West of Scotland)
• Bowler of the Year: Paul Hoffmann (Uddingston)
• All-Rounder of the Year: Neil MacRae (Aberdeen)

Lloyds TSB Scotland First Division

• Batsman of the Year: Craig Wallace (Forfarshire)
• Bowler of the Year: Benny McGill (Arbroath)
• All-Rounder of the Year: Vassu Reddy (Dunfermline)

Lloyds TSB Scotland Second Division

• Batsman of the Year: Kevin McLaren (RH Corstorphine)
• Bowler of the Year: Aparjit Singh (Falkland)
• All-Rounder of the Year: Zahid ul Haq (Renfrew)

• Umpire of the Year: Sandy Scotland
• Junior Club of the Year: Largo CC
• Eve Mawdsley Fair Play Award: West of Scotland CC

• Premier Division Groundsman of the Year: Paul Hoffmann (Uddingston)
• First Division Groundsman of the Year: Simon Pedgrift (Arbroath)
• Second Division Groundsman of the Year: David Davidson (Dumfries)

• HK More International Batsman of the Year: Gavin Hamilton
• International Bowler of the Year: Majid Haq
• International All-Rounder of the Year: Jan Stander
• International Players’ Player of the Year: Neil McCallum

•  Club of the Year: Aberdeenshire CC

Lisa Stephenson, Head of Customer Experience & Marketing for Lloyds Banking Group, commented: “Cricket in Scotland has grown significantly from grass-roots to the international profile in recent years. The SNCL Awards recognise some of the outstanding individual and team contributions made by players at club level this year. As always, there were some outstanding performances and we are delighted to be able to acknowledge these.

“We have been delighted to support Scottish Cricket for the past seven years and to watch how the sport has progressed. We'd like to take this opportunity to wish them every success for the future.”

After paying warm tribute to the sponsorship of Lloyds TSB Scotland, which concludes at the end of this month, Roddy Smith, Cricket Scotland Chief Executive, added: “The Lloyds TSB Scotland awards are due recognition for all the outstanding performances of the last year, not just by our players but also our clubs, umpires and groundsmen. It is pleasing to see many new names on the individual player trophies to complement the senior players such as Paul Hoffmann and Dougie Lockhart.

“I would like especially to offer my congratulations to both Aberdeenshire and Largo in winning the Club of the Year awards, as both clubs have strong and vibrant youth sections as well as thriving and successful adult sides.”