Four of Calmore Sports’ National Village Cup winners have been named in the competitions’ ‘Team of the Year 2021’, which was announced on Monday.
Tournament winning captain Mark Lavelle has been selected to lead the side, comprised of four from runners-up Alvanley and one each from Ynystawe, Stoke Green and Houghton Main in addition to the Calmore quartet.
Lord’s player of the match Ben Johns, Player of Round two Shawn Johnson and king of the maidens Steve Wright were Calmore’s other chosen nominees.
THE FULL TEAM:
Tom Blake (Ynystawe)
Ben Johns (Calmore Sports)
Michael Rowlands (Alvanley)
Simon Gee (Alvanley) (wk)
Pavinder Bhachu (Stoke Green)
Shawn Johnson (Calmore Sports)
Ste Charles (Alvanley)
Mark Lavelle (Calmore Sports) (capt)
Lee Ainsworth (Alvanley)
Michael Bates (Houghton Main)
Steve Wright (Calmore Sports)
12th man: Dylan Smythe (Houghton Main)
Winning the competition and lifting the trophy was the highlight for Mark Lavelle, who also claimed the ‘Golden Arm’ with 17 wickets. His 4-20 in the semi-final against Stoke Green was key and he only failed to take a wicket in his spell once through the eight games. With 2-26 in the Final, which ensured he finished as the top wicket taker, his crucial unbeaten 15 in support of Ben Johns saw his side over the line and he has been honoured by being named the Village Cup Team of the Year Captain.
After three games in the competition, Ben Johns had scores of 0, 0 and 2. But everyone at Calmore knows that Ben is the man for the big stage and so he proved with half-centuries in the quarter-final against Rockhampton, his top score of 75, a match winning unbeaten half-century in the 10-wicket mauling of Stoke Green and then, on the biggest stage of them all, hit 58 from 49 balls to see his side home at Lord’s. 252 runs at an average of 42 is an impressive recovery but you expect nothing else from him!
Shawn Johnson set his own bar very high at Paultons, hitting an outstanding 79 from 90 balls with the bat and then taking 5-34 as the rain fell, including a vital three in the last over of the game which saw him named the Theakston Player of the Round. His 77 from 70 balls against Sparsholt guided us to being Hampshire winners and the 4-40 in the Goatacre win rushed them out and set us on our way to that thrilling victory. He might have been at the club for barely 18 months but he is already making huge waves in the Green and White.
8-6-5-2. 8-6-5-2. The Calmore Sports club PIN number! Or just Steve Wright‘s monumental Lord’s bowling figures. Steve took 9 wickets at 14.67 each, that’s not too bad. But it was his economy rate of just 2.06 runs per over which stands him out – unsurprisingly he was the most economical bowler to have bowled 15+ overs. And he bowled 22 maidens in 64 overs – that’s 34% of his overs went for nothing. And then there was that magical spell from the Pavilion End containing 47 dot balls in 49 deliveries. He rightly takes his place in this team for his metronomical skills.
Congratulations to all 12 players named in the team, especially our mighty four … but it is also great to see that our friends from Alvanley had four included too, including their captain Michael Rowlands, who scored the most runs.
The two captains at Lord’s – both of whom ensured they topped the charts as the leading wicket-taker and the leading run scorer on that very special day.
