Surrey OSCAs – JT Wins, Pagie Shortlisted

A great day off the pitch for the Club on Sunday as two of our finest made shortlists for an Outstanding Services to Cricket Award.

The OSCAs recognise the hard work thousands of volunteers across Surrey put into the recreational game. An OSCA nomination is a great way for the Surrey Cricket Foundation to say thank you to your volunteers.

Nominees and nominators were invited to attend an event at the Kia Oval on Sunday 18th August on Day 1 of Surrey’s County Championship fixture against Hampshire, and we had success in two categories; details below with a background to each nomination.

JAMES TROWER – WINNER
Young Volunteer 19-25
James joined the club 15 years ago as an Under 9. He progressed through the colts into senior cricket. He was appointed 1st XI skipper in 2016 at the age of 21, leading the team to three successive promotions from Div 5 to Div 2 in the Surrey Championship. He qualified as a Level 2 coach at the age of 18 and he works tirelessly to ensure that the club has an inclusive environment for all ages, levels and abilities of cricketers. Friday night training now sees senior players supporting coaches in each age group. James leads this through a weekly duty rota for all senior players to support different coaching sessions. He works with the 2s, 3s and Sunday skippers to ensure that colts are given the opportunity to shine in senior cricket and he was instrumental in organising the recent ‘Stoke Smash’, when team managers and 1s players played a 16 over match in front of 100 enthusiastic colts. He is a Club man to the core and is a role model for the younger colts; constantly coming up with new ideas to improve the way things are done, both on and off the field. His positive energy is infectious.

ANDY PAGE – Final 4 Shortlist
Lifetime Achiever
In 22 years as a member of the club, Andy has made an enormous contribution. As skipper of the first eleven for 6 consecutive years, (2004-2009), he led the transformation of the team from ageing middle aged men to a group of former colts aged 14-18. In doing this, he secured promotion with a team of teenagers from the Fuller’s League to the Surrey Championship, establishing the platform for today’s ‘grow your own players’ policy. At the same time, he skippered the Surrey Trust League team, using it as an additional vehicle for colts development. He subsequently managed the Club’s very successful Ladies team for 5 years, the most famous export being Natalie Sciver. In 2013, he joined forces with the chairman to re-design the clubhouse and make it fit-for-purpose for life inthe Surrey Championship. The Chairman led the fund-raising process and as a practicing chartered surveyor, Andy project-managed the £250,000 build in 2015, refusing to charge the Club for his time. Today, he remains on the Committee in charge of facilities and he continues to play 2s, Sunday and midweek cricket. To many members, he is known as the man who modernised the Club.



Thanks to Drew for the images of JT, (between between Gus Atkinson and Stuart Meaker); and Pagie who was always going to struggle to win because of his age and tenure, (the winner has 62 years’ service to one club under his belt), but our sources say he was incredibly touched and quite emotional. It was a big deal for his family who were also in attendance!

Details of other categories and awards can be found here : https://twitter.com/SurreyCricketFd