ELLIE AND JOSH WIN TOP AWARDS AS COMP YOUNGSTERS ARE WELL REPRESENTED AT LCB EXCELLENCE NIGHT

Date: 13th November 2014

A Paul Edwards copyright exclusive for L&DCC Official Website.

Matthew Hurst, Ben Walkden and Saad Khan also amongst winners.

Rainford’s Ellie Threlkeld and Southport and Birkdale's new signing Josh Bohannon were both in the limelight this week when they were named Players of the Season at the Lancashire Cricket Board’s Development of Excellence Presentation Evening, which was held at Old Trafford on Monday.

Bohannon, who played his cricket at Farnworth Social Circle before joining S&B in September, received the Cedric Rhodes Player of the Season award from Ashley Giles, Lancashire’s new Director of Cricket and Head Coach. It was presented in recognition of some outstanding performances for the County’s Under 17 team, for whom Bohannon scored 213 against Staffordshire in the ECB County Championship semi-final and 105 versus Durham in the group stages of the same competition.

In addition to representing Lancashire’s 2nd XI against Leicestershire, 17-year-old Bohannon was a key member of the LCB side which won the Royal London Under 17 Cup and shared the County Championship in its age group.

But the evening was also very memorable for the highly promising Threlkeld, who keeps wicket and opens the batting for the county’s Under 15 side as well as the Lancashire Women's team and has recently been selected for the England U19 Development Programme. The Rainford cricketer was named the girls’ Player of the Season and received her award from the England cricketer Kate Cross at an event attended by over 700 players, parents, guests and officials. Proceedings were opened by John Williams, Secretary of the Lancashire Schools Cricket Association and compered by LCB Managing Director Bobby Denning.

Monday’s event capped a most successful 2014 for Lancashire’s junior teams. The Under 10s, Under 11s and Under 14 development sides were all successful at the ECB Taunton Festival; the Under 13s reached the final of the Northern Counties Competition; the Under 14s won every game in the ECB Royal London Cup; the Under 17 Girls were finalists of the ECB Royal London Cup and Under 17 Boys won the Royal London One-Day Cup and shared the Two-Day County Championship with Surrey.

In addition to the top two accolades, young players from Liverpool Competition clubs were well represented in the evening's other honours with age group player of the season awards going to Matthew Hurst (U10) and Ben Walkden (U11), both from Newton Le Willows, and Saad Khan (U16) from Rainford. Player performance awards (for centuries or five-wicket hauls) were made to Matthew Hurst, Ben Walkden, David Jump (U12) Formby, Bobby Wincer (U13) Fleetwood Hesketh, Lewis Dove(U14) Leigh and George Lavelle (U15) Ormskirk and Ellie Threlkeld.

LCB Performance Manager Steve Titchard said: “On behalf of the Lancashire Cricket Board I’d like to congratulate all the players that have represented LCB County squads this year. “These players are the best within their age groups and we hope some of them will go on to represent Lancashire at the senior level.

“I would also like to thank all the managers and coaches who help ensure these squads perform to their highest level and there should be a special mention to our Under 17 boys team for their league and cup success.”

LCCC Academy Director John Stanworth added: “LCB’s Representative System continues to produce players of the qualities necessary to succeed at the next level. The refinement of our system with the Emerging Player Programme and the LCCC Academy programme provide further opportunities for this to be achieved.

“The successful progression of local players into a very competitive Lancashire first team is always our aim. My sincere thanks to the team managers, coaches, administrators and volunteers who help enormously with our young cricketers.”