The Twelfth Man 2013

18 become a good spin bowler – he isn’t afraid to flight the ball above the batsman’s eye line, gets good bounce and turn and when he gets his length right he is a real handful. His batting has steadily improved as the sessions have progressed. He tries to play straight and times the ball nicely. He has been great to work with and his coach is looking forward to working with him again next year. The winner is Alfie Woodward Darren Crossland’s net –The Brian Johnston Award The runner-up is a lad who started out this year bowling into the nets consistently at first. We worked on his action and delivery immediately in the first week and he made quick progress. He also worked hard in his approach and follow through. He needs to continue to work hard on making sure that he keeps his action upright and his bowling arm high when bowling. He started to swing the ball away from the batsmen with good reward and I was very pleased with the progress he has made. He is a very flamboyant batsman and likes to put bat to ball, and at times plays the front foot shots with his back knee on the floor, but having said that he still manages to play the ball well. He needs to play with a straighter bat when playing the forward and backward defensive shots and in my opinion the most important shot a batsman can play. Having said all this he works hard and listens well so I am sure this will come more natural during the coming months. He can play attacking shots with ease and I will look with interest to see how he progresses. The runner-up is Harry Morris The winner of this award is a cricketer that I will watch with interest to see how he goes on in the coming years. He is a very gifted cricketer that has excellent batting and bowling technique. He is a very good listener who takes on board all comments made to him and just quietly adds these points to his game and makes improvements. He bowls a very good line and length and does not try to ball too fast which is encouraging for such a young cricketer. He has a nice side on action that gives him more opportunity to swing the ball away from the batsman. He needs to continue with this approach as good line and length with outswing will always bring rich rewards when bowling. He needs to continue to run in straighter when approaching the wicket and follow through to complete his bowling action and this will give him more fluency. His batting is very straight for a young player and plays the back foot drive as well as any young player I have coached or watched. If he continues to listen, and I am sure he will, then he will score lots of runs in the coming season. He needs to work on playing the ball to leg and this will complete his batting technique. Congratulations and good luck with his cricket this year. The winner is Oliver Bennett Sam Wilson’s net (‘The Warm Up Man’) – The Eric Sykes Award From week three I knew I was looking at one of three players. I then managed to whittle this down to two, but as for the winner of the Eric Sykes Award, and the runner-up, this constantly changed even up to the last week. So the runner-up is an undoubted talent that could easily cope with bowling in the net with the oldest players. I have seen him develop from a ‘cheeky little chappie’ to someone who is now becoming what I would call a player. It's been a pleasure to work with him yet again and to see how his approach to cricket is maturing. I know he has many years to come of winning awards but this year he is the runner-up of the Eric Sykes Award. The runner-up is Matthew Marsh The winner is someone who I have worked with for the first time this year and it has been a pleasure. He is undoubtedly talented, dedicated to improving, and through the weeks he has become quicker and more accurate as a bowler. His batting has improved tremendously being more controlled and confident. Like Matthew this player is someone who is bound to achieve and I feel it will be opportunity and input by coaches at a higher level that will decide how far he can go. The winner is Dominic Crossland On the players behalf I would like to thank the members of the Society for their continued support. It is good to watch another ex- Wombwell cricketer, Joe Root, representing England. Unfortunately I had no hand in his development that was down to Herbert Jones. Joe’s brother, Billy, however is a different matter and I can’t wait for him to break through. I even have old video footage from when he was a youngster.