Wanderers Gold shine at awards

Kookaburra Sports Geraldton Junior Cricket Association held its 2017/2018 season awards ceremony at the conclusion of the under-17s grand final on March 18.

Under-14s honours were dominated by Wanderers Gold players, who completed their undefeated regular season with a 139-run victory over sister side Black.

Versatile Gold skipper Kade Gillingham was awarded champion player of the competition, well ahead of teammate Taj Satie, who finished runner-up.

Gillingham, who played 30 club matches across under-14s, under- 17s and B-grade, had an exceptional campaign in his age group.

In 12 matches, the skipper scored 317 runs (42 highest score) at an average of 79.3 runs.

With the ball, he took 10 wickets, with healthy average and economy rates of 6.8 and 2.6 respectively.

It was a watershed year for Satie, who although he showed some promise again with the ball, took his batting to another level.

Including finals, Satie scored 359 runs (highest score of 50), with a staggering average of 179.5 runs.

In 10 trips to the crease, he retired not out on eight occasions.

Mitchell Thompson completed the Gold trifecta by claiming the bowling average award, while emerging Towns all-rounder Toby Keeffe received the bowling aggregate title.

As expected, Hudson Toomey dominated the under-17s honours considering his phenomenal individual efforts at club, representative and Perth-grade levels throughout the season.

Runner-up behind Toomey was Towns Blue batsman Travis Owen, who played six senior A-grade games along with 21 games across both T20 and 40-over cricket.

Owen, traditionally a first- drop batsman, scored 303 runs from 12 trips to the crease at an average of 25.3 runs.

Towns White’s Tom Forsyth took 21 wickets in 2017/2018 at under-17s level, helping him collect both bowling honours.

With a personal best of 4/5 against Sportsmans on November 19, Forsyth’s final average was a scintillating 5.8 runs a wicket, with an equally impressive economy rate of 2.1 runs per over.