Wellington Cricket Club brought their blue riband event – the Dinner and Awards Evening – back into the town after a few years away and Wellington School’s Great Hall provided an excellent backdrop to a gala evening that was attended by over one hundred people on the evening of Saturday 8th October.

Following pre-event formalities a three course meal of high quality followed by coffee and a generous raffle the scene was set for one of the most important speeches of the year – the Chairman’s Address – and it was Duncan Short who delivered his sixteenth such speech.

Welcoming Life Members, Vice Presidents, Sponsors, Social Members, Past Players, Guests, Players and Friends Mr Short was pleased to be able to see all areas of the Club’s membership represented.

Once more guests from Wellington Football Club (Reg Oxby and his wife Jenny) and Wellington Rugby Club (Keith Colman and Chris Bullock) attended and this once more shows the strong links that continue to exist between the three Clubs.

The input from all Sponsors was noted in both financial and physical terms – Rob and Chris Hunt from Wellington Self Storage, Mike and Mel Beal from MMB Cleaning Services, Graham and Debbie Sparks from Graham Sparks Furniture Restoration and Des and Ali Campbell from 3D Fire Systems were all present and were warmly thanked for their generosity and presence.

A good number of Club Vice Presidents were present too – Rachel Moysey, Matt and Steph Colman, John and Carla Bettinson, Roderic Sparks, Bernie Burnett, John Bradner, Judith Short, Simon and Monica Spalding – their valued input to Club life was noted.

Three Life Members were also welcomed to the event in Tony Rudd, Simon Rudd and Simon Spalding.

Junior cricket was, once more in 2016, overseen by Mark Salter (Under 11s), Tony Hutchings (Under 13s) and Richard Short (Under 15s) and all excelled in their specific areas; the youngest age group is well populated with players taking their first steps in the game, the middle group played eleven a side cricket in 2016 and achieved third place in their league and got to the semi finals of the County Cup.

Once more the eldest age group combined with another Club – this time Bagborough CC – to achieve a full set of fixtures at a time when many Clubs do not run a standalone team at this age and this was of benefit to all from the Club who took part as they took on senior playing roles too.

The Club’s Planning and Development function provides a framework for achieving success at the crossover point of junior and senior cricket – arguably the biggest area of this work is the delivery of winter coaching sessions for youth players and this has been on the Club’s calendar every season since 2010 under the guidance of Simon Spalding, Ivor Mitchell and David Derrick from an administrative view with the Team Managers and Coaches delivering the physical sessions – the benefits of such are tangible and will continue to be with 2017’s programme being planned from now.

The contribution to the Club of South African Zandre Swartz was cited and his knocks of 116 v Ilminster in the Baker Cup First Round and of 130no v Taunton St Andrews in the Sunday League will live long in the memory and thanks were made to Simon Rudd for sharing his house with Zandre for the duration of the season and to others who facilitated his stay both on and off the field of play.

Two Club members – Simon Rudd and David Derrick – were recognised for services to the game by Somerset Cricket Board on behalf of the England and Wales Cricket Board.

The Club is noted for its hospitality and this comes in the form of some of the best, if not the very best, teas on the circuit and these are provided – week in, week out for all games that require such – by Amanda Moysey, Ali Campbell and Mel Beal who receive sterling support from Judith Short, Lorna Desave, Jean Burnett, Heather Cook, and Carla Bettinson.

Sharon Frost, Trudy Brooks and Andy Campbell were noted for giving so much time in respect of serving on the bar and the washing up crew of Trevor Desave, Bernie Burnett and John Bettinson did much good work too after all had been fed and watered at the mid innings interval.

The Ladies Section provides so much of a base for the Club to expand and move on from that this fact drew particular emphasis from Mr Short.

A packed social calendar exists both in and out of season and to this end events such as the Past Players Association Lunch, Ladies Day, Sponsors Lunch, Club Day, Oompah Night, Christmas Party, Race Night and Quiz Night were professionally delivered and enjoyed by many; thanks go to Simon Rudd for the Quiz Night, to Des and Ali Campbell along with Mel Beal for the Race Night and Oompah Event and to the Rudd brothers for the PPA Lunch along with same for the Club Day with Amanda Moysey and Sharon Frost providing for the Sponsors Lunch.

Charitable inputs were made to Ovarian Cancer, Hospice South West, Meningitis and the Vine Trust in 2016 it was noted.

All the Ladies who had worked so hard for the Club each received a gift from Club Captain Alex Sparks.

It was also noted that in 2016 Shellie Jarman had taken on the role of 1st XI scorer and was to progress this role to an electronic base in 2017 as online scoring arrives at the Club.

Shellie was presented with a token of esteem for her efforts from Club Secretary David Derrick as he made a special award; Ivor Mitchell had scored two 1st XI games in 2016 and this fact was warmly recognised too.

The efforts of the Club’s administrative team – David Derrick, Marc Holloway, Steve Symons and Kevin Crout – were warmly credited and it was noted that Steve Symons was to step down as Fixture Secretary after six seasons in the post – his work to retain and develop Sunday friendly cricket with and for the Club will be a legacy of his time in this role.

Groundsmanship work for the Club in 2016 was the domain of Des Campbell and Mike Beal with help from others as and when required and there has been a tremendous improvement in the performance of the whole playing surface and this has been demonstrated by the WEPL grading for 2016 received recently.

This is part of a three year plan and the Club is committed to supporting this work both operationally and financially.

Mr Short then turned his attention to the future of the Club game and he implored the Club to maintain it current portfolio of teams at what is a testing time for the recreational game; senior team captains Alex Sparks, Rob Moysey, Des Campbell, Arron Campbell and Jack Beal were those with this responsibility in 2016 and they executed matters in an effective and professional manner and can be proud of their efforts that produced a retained place in WEPL for the 1st XI, promotion as runners up in the two SCL divisions competed in – Division Five for the 2nd XI and Division Eight South for the 3rd XI – and the Sunday League title for the second time in three seasons for the Sunday XI. A first Baker Cup semi final in 20 years was achieved by the 1st XI and once more non-league matches were popular on both Sundays and in the working week when evening T20 matches were played.

Before the presentation of awards for the season Mr Short completed his speech by thanking Amanda Moysey, Ali Campbell and Mel Beal for bringing together the evening itself and to David Derrick for providing the statistics of the season.

The final set of thanks went to Simon Rudd, Sheldon Hancock and Robin Laird for their sterling bar work on the evening and to Gemma Shire, Chloe Summers, Evie Mehmet, Ashleigh Hollick and Catherine Parsons for their excellent table service.

Playing Awards were presented by Mike Beal of MMB Cleaning Services and the following were awarded for playing excellence and other aspects of Club life in 2016…

Somerset County Sports Sunday League Champions – Arron Campbell, Team Captain

Hundreds Made and Five Wickets Taken – Luke Desave, Zandre Swartz, Alex Sparks, Rob Moysey, Tyler Fyfe, Ryan Adams, Dave Luxton, Mark Saunders, Des Campbell, Ryan Henwood, Ben Evett, Tom Perry

Sunday/Midweek/T20 Bowling – Zandre Swartz

Sunday/Midweek/T20 Batting – Zandre Swartz

3rd XI Bowling – Tom Perry

3rd XI Batting – Mark Saunders

2nd XI Bowling – Rob Moysey

2nd XI Batting – Neil Hendy

1st XI Bowling – Arron Campbell

1st XI Batting – Alex Sparks

Six Hits Award – Zandre Swartz

Meredith Fielding Award – Jack Beal and Ryan Henwood

Mrs E.George Young Player of the Year Award – Arron Campbell

Ladies Award – Sharon Frost

Tony Rudd Sportsmanship Award – Andy Campbell

3rd XI Players Player Award – David Derrick

Fullstone Cup for 2nd XI Players Player Award – Trevor Brooks

A.W.Scott Cup for 1st XI Players Player Award – Luke Desave

Clubman of the Year – Des Campbell

Thanks were given to the staff of Wellington School for their service and delivery and to the evening’s photographer Glen Bramhall who captured the evening’s proceedings and award winners for posterity.

DJ Steve and his Mobile Disco provided excellent music to dance the night away to thereafter.