Cricket: Watsons take top team and best player prizes

Photo/File

It was a glittering occasion for the Watsons Wanganui junior representative cricket teams at their annual awards dinner at the Cooks Gardens conference dinner on Saturday night.

As well as Jessica Watkin being named player of the year, the Under 12 squad was recognised as the team of the year for a strong representative season.

The Under 12s were coached by Jason Clark and captained by Sam Sherriff.

Development officer Dilan Raj said there are plans for the team to go on a tour of New South Wales in January 2015, which will make them the first Wanganui junior representative team to embark on a development tour.

Also at the dinner were Black Cap Adam Milne and Hinds coach Mike Shrimpton, along with Wanganui's New Zealand U19 representatives, Henry Collier and Nick Blundell.

The 19-year-old Collier was Wanganui's highest achieving cricketer this season, having travelled with the NZ U19 team to the ICC Junior World Cup in Dubai.

In his speech, he encouraged the youngsters to continue setting goals and working hard, recounting the troubles he faced while still at Collegiate to keep performing at a high standard after making Central Districts age group selections.

"The title of being an overachiever increasingly grew on my head."

Other recent challenges included losing concentration and making a run of low scores on the NZU19 tour to Australia, following his century in the opening game.

Collier's next goal is to make the Central Districts Stags and begin a first class cricket career.