Graeme Aldridge Named Cricketer of the Year

Outstanding seam bowler Graeme Aldridge was last night named Northern Districts' Cricketer of the Year at the association's 2010/11 season awards in Hamilton.

Senior team member Aldridge's consistency across the HRV Cup, one-day and Plunket Shield competitions propelled him to the top honour, having earlier taken out the award for Northern Districts Bowler of the Year to conclude a summer in which he broke the New Zealand record for most one-day domestic wickets.

In a hard-fought competition for Northern Districts Batsman of the Year, former BLACKCAPS opener BJ Watling nudged out fellow former BLACKCAP Daniel Flynn and fellow top order batsman Brad Wilson, who also advanced his New Zealand selection cause with two first-class centuries this season and featured in a Northern Districts record opening partnership with Watling.

Yahoo!Xtra Northern Knights skipper James Marshall was named fielder of the year and rising star and young seamer James Baker the ND A player of the season. White Fern Nicola Browne was named the association's outstanding women's player of the year for her all-round performances and top fielding.

Follow this link for an interview with Graeme Aldridge reviewing the 2010/11 cricket season: http://northernknights.yahooxtra.co.nz/blogs/the-pink-report/entries/celebrating-the-g-force

The full Northern Districts Cricket awards for the 2010/11 season are:

Eric Petrie Cup (winning club in the ND Club Champs) – Mount Maunganui
Basil McBurney Trophy (District Association 2nd XI) – Northland
Women’s District Association Championship Cup – Bay Of Plenty
Brian Dunning Cup (men’s district one day championship) – Counties Manukau
Fergus Hickey Rosebowl (champion district association team) – Hamilton
Allan McBride Trophy for services to Junior Cricket – Tony Edwards, Northland
Umpire of the Year – Ashley Mehotra, Counties Manukau
Craigs Investment Partners Academy Player of the Year – Ben Hyde, Northland
Young Cricketer of the Year – Andrew Mathieson
District Association Player of the Year – Leighton Parsons, Waikato Valley
Men’s Northern Districts A Player of the Year – James Baker, Hamilton
Northern Districts Cricket Women’s Cricketer of the Year – Nicola Browne

Northern Districts Fielder of the Year – for all-round fielding excellence, the award went to James Marshall who not only took 10 catches in the field but also achieved numerous runouts.

Northern Districts Bowler of the Year – Graeme Aldridge. He succeeded in all formats: 12 wickets at an average cost of 20 runs in the HRV Cup Twenty20 competition; 11 wickets at 26 runs in the one day competition and 30 wickets at 25 runs in the Plunket Shield: 53 wickets in total. Along the way he passed Chris Harris as the highest wicket taker in New Zealand domestic one day cricket history.

Northern Districts Batsman of the Year – BJ Watling averaged over 50 in both the Plunket Shield and the one day competition. In all formats he scored over 1000 runs.

Northern Districts Player of the Year – This award goes to the most outstanding player for Northern Districts in domestic competitions for the 2010/11 season.

A great servant of Northern Districts Cricket for over a decade since his debut in the 1998/99 season. This season, he became the highest wicket taker in domestic one-day cricket in New Zealand. He took 53 wickets during the season, and performed outstandingly in all three formats of the game.

He has also worked hard on his batting and made a number of important contributions during the season with a top score of 58 in the Plunket Shield and 47 in the One-Day competition.

The Northern Districts Cricket Player of the Year is Graeme Aldridge.

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