Nathan Philip and Stacey Norton-Smith have blitzed Cricket North's 2019-20 awards after dominating the men's and women's competitions.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
$0/
(min cost $0)
or signup to continue reading
Launceston all-rounder Norton-Smith took out a clean sweep of the women's awards, collecting player of the year, batting average (160 runs at 53.3) and bowling average (13 wickets at 5.08), while Philip won A-grade player of the year and batting average.
The South Launceston left-hander pummelled three tons in a season that yielded 607 runs at 67.44 - marginally pipping teammate Sean Harris' 592 runs at 53.82.
Philip scored fewer runs than in 2018-19 (800), but struck two more centuries to help the Knights reach their fourth final in a row.
"Last year was a little bit more consistent runs every game, whereas this year was a bit more hit and miss," the 26-year-old said.
"I'd get a really good score or not many at all, so it was a bit of a different season but I'm equally as proud.
"Sometimes my results last year didn't really end up with a team victory, whereas it was good to see this year when I scored a hundred we typically went onto win the game.
"Myself and Sean had pretty good seasons but a lot of our other batters contributed a lot this year as well which is nice to see, it wasn't just Sean and I up there scoring all the runs."
WRAP-UPS: Westbury 2019-20 season review
One of the competition's most improved players of the past two seasons, Harris took out one-day player of the year after posting scores of 73, 130, 80 and 70 among his first eight outings of the season.
Another veteran, Nick Spencer, won the bowling average award (14.69) after matching Westbury teammate Kieren Hume's (16.42) 26-wicket campaign.
Cricket North's grand final would have thrown the competition's two leading run-scorers and wicket-takers had it gone ahead, but Philip said the right call was made.
"It was obviously disappointing not to play in a grand final, we psyched ourselves up after a good victory against Launceston and we were planning on a big week at training but it wasn't to be," he said.
"There's bigger things in the world than a Launceston cricket final going on at the moment and I think it was understandable that Westbury were awarded the victory and congratulations to them, they've had a very good season and they're the benchmark of the competition the last 10 years.
"We felt like it would have been a really close game and like we were a better team than last year, where we got pretty much thrashed in the final, but it wasn't to be.
"There's always next year and we'll train and prepare well for next year's campaign."
ELSEWHERE IN SPORT
The star quartet were all named in Cricket North's team of the year, with premiership skipper Dan Murfet named captain.
South Launceston keeper-batter Caitlyn Webster was named captain of the women's team of the year, which featured six Knights representatives.
Cricket North Team of the Year
- Daniel Murfet (C), Nathan Philip, Sean Harris, Matthew Battle, Dane Anderson, Ethan Conway, Peter New, Luke Scott, Nick Spencer, Jonathon Chapman, Josh Freestone, Kieren Hume
- Coach: Matthew Battle
- Umpires: Brian Dryden, Craig Johns
- Scorer: Bryan Wedd
Women's Team of the Year
- Caitlyn Webster (C), Stacey Norton-Smith, Amy Duggan, Maddison Hill, Alice McLauchlan, Dana Lester, Kate Sheriff, Meg Radford, Charlotte Layton, Lynn Hendley, Ellie Matthews, Belinda Wegman