United Cricket Club (Counties Manukau) Incorporated

United CC's 2009-10 Annual Prize Giving turned out to be a very well-attended affair, acknowledging the efforts of the various achievers during the recently-concluded season. At the hour-and-a-bit-long function held at Murphy's Law Irish Bar in Drury on Thursday 22nd April '10, the name heard most repeatedly was that of R1 all-rounder Rajat Malhotra, who bagged the prestigious Edmonds Trophy (awarded to the Most Valuable Player of the club for the whole season) & shared the Eastham Platter (Overall Most Improved Player of the club for the season) with Senior A opening batsman Josh Burgess (JB), besides winning a plethora of team awards & achievement awards. Josh Burgess was close on Rajat's heels, earning the coveted Bongard Cup (Leading Run Scorer for the club for the whole season) & sharing the Eastham Platter besides bagging quite a few team & achievement awards as well.

R1 opening bowler Liam Jackson (28 wickets) ran away with the mighty Hamilton Shield, pipping Rajat (27 wickets) by a solitary wicket. R1 all-rounder Nathan Palmer, besides missing a couple of games during the season, had done enough to brush aside any challengers for the Bhakoo Award (awarded to the Most Promising Newcomer to have joined the club in the season).

JT Tree Services, one of United CC's sponsors, in recognition of their achievements during the season, awarded a bottle of wine to each of the Top Five players on the MVP list (Rajat Malhotra, Matthew Forrest, Josh Burgess, Liam Jackson & Lee Ter Huurne), besides conducting a Lucky Draw at the conclusion of the function, giving away some vouchers, tickets to the Warriors' home games & a Warriors jersey signed by ace Warrior winger Manu "The Beast" Vatuvei.

The United CC Managing Committee would like to congratulate all the winners & would like to thank all the attendees for making it a smoothly-run well-attended event. The Committee would also take this opportunity to thank all its sponsors for their valuable support during the season, particularly Johnny Taufa of JT Tree Services for sparing some time to attend the whole prize-giving & conducting the Lucky Draw.

A full list of the prize-winners will be separately posted on the website soon as a news item & added under the "Honours Board" tab as well.