On Friday 15 March 2019, the Boroondara Cricket Club held its 2018/2019 Season Awards Evening at which the Junior Section teams received team awards (batting, bowling and coach’s awards) and four special awards were presented.
One such award was the Junior Club Champion (aka the Michael Bingley Award) for the 2018/19 season. This award commenced in 1999/2000 season and it is the highest award in the Junior Section of the Club. The award is given to the best performed player in the Junior Section of the Boroondara Cricket Club and is usually awarded either to an Under 16A player or for a younger player who has a most outstanding performance by that player at his age level. Recent past recipients have included Louis Smith, Jake Fraser – McGurk, Jonathan Merlo, and Noah Croes.
The junior player’s Senior record is informative but not necessarily an advantage as his/her junior playing record is given more importance. Also taken into account is the junior player’s selection in junior representative cricket for the ECA, Victorian or Australian junior teams and his/her performance across the ECA competition relevant to the player.
The nominees for Junior Club Champion in season 2018/2019 were Jake Phillips (16Cs), Tom Ferguson (16Bs), Daniel Gambell (16Bs), Josh Chivers (16Bs/3rds/4ths), Patrick Forrest (14As/LOC4), Charlie Grummitt (14As), Obie Chambers (14As/3rds), Luca Van Der Sluys (14As/LOC4) and Ben Wickham (12As/14Bs).
When announcing the winner of the Junior Club Champion for season 2018/2019, Club President, Michael Bingley, told the expectant crowd of supporters that the voting this season was very close.
And the winner of the Junior Club Champion award for 2018/2019 was Patrick Forrest.
Pat has had a great season with the bat in the 14As scoring 253 runs at an average of 63.25 in the home/away season. His aggregate for the season was the second highest in the ECA under 14As competition and his average was the fifth highest in the competition.
Pat also had a great finals campaign for the 14As also scoring 79 retired not out in the semi-final against Kew and then 49 in the losing grand final against Canterbury. His 14As aggregate for the entire 2018 /2019 season was 381 at 76.20.
Pat was also joint captain of the 14As all season with Ben Oppy and Murray Francis and he captained the 14As in the finals.
Pat’s performance in the Senior’s LOC 4 team this season was also very good. He scored 230 runs at 46 where he often batted at 4. Across all teams in the Juniors and Seniors Pat’s batting aggregate was the highest at the Club for the seniors and juniors amassing 674 runs at 44.93.
In presenting his award, Michael Bingley also praised Pat (and Murray Francis) for his work in conducting the Woolworths Junior Blasters programme at the Club on Wednesday afternoons. He said that Pat was terrific with the kids in encouraging them and helping them learn the game.
Well done Pat – a well deserved Junior Club Champion.