The Cricketer's Club Hero was open to all amateur cricketers, men and women, and club members who have gone the extra mile to keep their club ticking during lockdown.
We received dozens of entries, the majority of which can be seen below.
Opening batsman Dave works in the heart disease medical research department at the John Radcliffe hospital in Oxford but through this pandemic he has been taking regular shifts in the frontline.
Even when fully decked out in masks and aprons he has maintained his sense of humour. Inspired by a teammate's fictional match reports, Dave started doing pitch reports from Wytham in the style of the Australian Channel 9 reports with their famous “key test”, and has entertained his teammates on WhatsApp throughout.
Mick is the groundsman at Chipping Norton & District. During lockdown he has taken it upon himself to ensure the facilities are in good nick despite the lack of cricket.
He has been killing moss, scarifying, re-seeding... and repeating this sequence over and over again, as well as the typical strimming and mowing duties. Oh, and he's also acted as ground security, rolled the wicket, marked up the artificial net and helped construct a net to stop the ball clattering into a new housing development nearby.
Jon kickstarted Wimbledon CC's junior programme the day after lockdown was released, spending all night developing an online pod system for the colts - one coach and five colts per pod, in hourly slots with all the appropriate safeguards.
Thee programme had more than 4,000 sessions booked and Jon got it rolling within 24 hours. Every pod was fully utilised by colts, meaning 750 youngsters had at least two hours per week in the field.
Jon then set about getting summer camps going with the same verve - resulting in an additional 700 colts booking online to come to 2,000 sessions. These sessions were "sold out" in 48 hours, with additional income to the club of over £50,000 - desperately needed in the circumstances.
From the start of lockdown to the resumption of cricket in July, Derrick (North Enfield's assistant groundsman and first-team vice-captain) has thrown his heart and soul into every aspect of the club.
Alongside a core team of committee members, he has spent every Saturday and Sunday, and at least four days a week doing ground maintenance to ensure we are ready for cricket to resume.
He designed and helped build a new bench from railway sleepers. He repaired and rebuilt over 200 yards of fencing. With a couple of other members he laid a patio area for a seating area and rebuilt and painted the sightscreens.
This is in addition to maintaining the outfield and square, meaning he has spent in excess of 500 hours doing work at the club since March. In addition, he volunteered to set up and run the net booking system and be the nominated management committee member on-site, at least two evenings a week since practice was allowed to resume.
The club estimates that Derrick along with others have done the equivalent of four years' worth of work. While being furloughed from his job, he has achieved incredible things.
Karl's selfless attitude to his club has never been more prominent than during the Covid-19 crisis. He is generally the first to check on members, calling up the older members of the club to make sure they are okay and have everything they need, keeping in contact with the junior parents, and running lockdown games on social media.
Karl was also instrumental in ensuring the ground was kept maintained during closure. It was his strong belief that members of the club who had lost jobs were able to attend the ground on a rota basis, giving them the chance to support their mental health by having a purpose and a key job to do. He also ran a lockdown Zoom quiz every Friday night for members and set up WhatsApp groups to keep everyone in contact.
While organising all ensured all available funding was applied for, and any fundraising the club could do was done, culminating with him doing a 12 hour sponsored batting challenge at the club, raising over £2,000. He faced 1,806 deliveries, with two 20-minute breaks for food. He batted through heavy rain at times and inspired the community to donate.
Within hours of the ECB announcement of the restarting of recreational cricket he had arranged four friendlies.
Dave has been a pivotal part of the club for over 10 years. He produces pitches week after week with no help from councils or a groundsman, having taught himself all the necessary skills.
The club has little funds available and no bar, therefore they rely solely on subs but this often isn’t enough and Dave has often put money into the club from his own pocket to ensure that the players have the best pitch to play on.
He will go down to the ground at 7am on the day of the match to ensure everything is ready then go to the supermarket and get the teas.
Within the first few days of lockdown, Dave set up an online quiz, so people could participate live in an event and feel connected to the local community. This was not only for use of cricket club members, but also any locals who would benefit from company.
Dave runs general knowledge, music and sports quizzes lasting an hour each time - sometimes as often as four evenings a week but at least every week, often dressing up and making a fool of himself.
Importantly, he has also raised valuable funds used not only for the cricket club but also to very worthwhile local causes.
Money raised has gone towards The Chipping Norton Foodbank, The Royal British Legion, a local gentleman who suffers from MND and his charity. Great & Little Tew CC and the Tew Centre (which is used by the local community) will benefit from the purchase of a defibrillator.
Dave is still doing regular quizzes and continuing with fund raising ideas and is hoping to raise money that can be put towards a guide dog for a local resident.
Simon has created a group of volunteers to help maintain the ground and has been supporting others to gain skills in the preparation of pitches.
He has kept the ground in the best condition possible, permitting a return to playing quicker than other clubs in the area. Since lockdown began, Simon has also painted the pavillion and completed improvements inside displaying club history to those who attend, as well as playing an integral role in the return to playing and maintaining contact to keep people interested.
On top of all of this he is the regional pitch advisor and will provide assistance to anyone on condition and possible ground improvements.
During the Covid-19 lockdown period and like many "normal" years before, John does more than his fair share of work for Knaresborough, which sees him spend many an hour on a mower and roller.
During lockdown, he created YouTube tutorial videos for his clubmates, explaining how to operate the equipment needed to maintain the ground.
Because of all John's great work preparing and making the ground available, Knaresborough were ready to play as soon as government permission was granted.
Sam anticipated that it might be possible to replace the regular group coaching sessions for kids with one-on-one coaching in the nets once lockdown began to lift and the ECB changed regulations, and was ready to go immediately when this happened.
She proceeded to organise a block of 445 one-on-one coaching sessions for juniors of all ages (right down to the under-6s who would have been doing All Stars) with four different coaches over three weeks. The logistics of this comprised of well over a thousand emails and many, many hours.
When lockdown was not eased further, she did it all over again - 445 more one-on-one coaching sessions. Dulwich's juniors are now into their third block - this time, restrictions have eased so two or three kids can practise with a coach depending on age
Sam has, for Dulwich's children, kept alive the interest in cricket.
Trevor has been Borderers head coach for a number of years and coaches all junior ages from the All-Star age group up to under-15s. In a normal year, Trevor would be volunteering as a cricket coach at numerous primary schools in the area, but Covid-19 hasn't put him off spreading the word about cricket.
During the initial phase of lockdown Trevor worked hard to keep in touch with the club parents and children via email and the website. He helped to organise several lockdown drills on the website to keep the children engaged.
As soon as ECB guidance permitted, Trevor began running one-to-one sessions (typically 45 minutes) throughout the week (2pm to 8pm) and at weekends (10am to 2pm). This equated to 38 hours of training per week. On top of this, Trevor manages almost all of the club admin (fees, membership forms, communications with parents, booking system for the lockdown training).
As the guidance changed Trevor has been able to work with small groups, giving ever more children the opportunity to continue practising cricket. At the most recent count, with one-to-ones, household bubbles training together and recently expanded small groups, Trevor has been able to provide the opportunity to train to 100 children per week.
Trevor has also loaned out at least one piece of equipment, mostly from his own stock, (whether a ball or helmet or gloves) to 42 children (which they have been able to keep for the duration of lockdown).
At a time when cricket has been severely restricted, Trevor has (almost single-handedly) been able to not only keep cricket going for the junior club members but also recruit 23 new juniors to the club, including several girls.
Luke drives a 64 mile round trip to look after Topcroft's facility, and regularly spends up to eight hours at the ground each visit, cutting the outfield, strimming and rolling.
His dedication was even more impressive this spring when, due to mechanical failure, the club lost its gang mower.
At the first sign of dry weather, Luke strimmed the worse areas then jumped onto a small lawn tractor to cut the outfield and nets (an area of approximately 15,000 meters square).
Without Luke's dedication Topcroft would not have been cricket-ready now that the season is finally here.
Martyn has been a member of Farndon cricket club since the age of 11 and is now junior coordinator, as well as being a Chance to Shine officer and junior Outlaws' coach for Nottinghamshire.
When restrictions were lifted, Martyn put together a plan to coach the juniors and adults of the club. He has dedicated over 20 hours a week to coaching over 20 juniors one on one, plus creating a safe environment for seniors to practise before moving to small groups.
He has managed all the bookings and made sure all restrictions were adhered to. This has allowed over 40 members of Farndon to enjoy some form of cricket.
In June he arranged a bat-a-thon for charity which saw him take guard from sunrise to sunset. Nearly £3,000 was raised.
Neil has been prolific during the lockdown period. He created an Owzthat dice cricket league involving several other local clubs, also ran an Owzthat match on the first day of the ‘regular’ season, when Walton-le-Dale's first team were meant to play Blackpool.
Soon, Neil progressed to running virtual T20 matches on Cricket19 which followed the scheduled fixtures for the season, alternating between each of the three Saturday teams. Neil provided ball-by-ball commentary on these games and also developed the ground on Cricket19 to look as realistic as possible.
He also arranged for Walton-le-Dale to play an international Cricket19 match against Parnell CC of New Zealand.
Neil has launched the club’s ‘Up The Dale’ podcasts on YouTube, and has now recorded more than 10 episodes, covering a range of general cricketing topics and featuring special appearances from Lancashire player Steven Croft and Derbyshire’s Luis Reece.
In June, the club's covers were slashed. Neil created a GoFundMe page to raise money to replace these covers. Within 48 hours, the target amount had been reached, with Neil also establishing local media coverage via BBC Radio Lancashire.
On top of all of that, Neil has also been a key part of creating the club's outdoor training policy for this season, arranging the sanitising procedures which have allowed us to begin the season, and has been in regular contact with Walton-le-Dale's landlord about the potential for cricket to be played this season.
Simon has found the energy to drive communication forward across all areas of the club and maintained the same level of enthusiasm despite the difficult situation.
His drive to engage with Morley's junior coaches and parents whilst managing the club finances and supply chain has been, according to those at the club, "nothing short of a miracle".
He has also continued to show commitment to promoting the profile of the club, ensuring it remains a hub of the community.
With the support of his wife Jacquie (club treasurer), he has spent endless hours driving things forward for the good of the club and its members.
Alex is a key member of Knebworth Park's junior coaching team and, with all cricket on hold and lockdown in place, worked in isolation to repair the net surfaces and get them ready for use.
The club was unable to get a team together to work on the project, so Alex spent hours and hours clearing the winter debris and restoring the artificial surfaces. Once that was done, he then spent a whole day with his family at the nets repairing holes, and sorting the netting out for health and safety.
Alex's work meant Knebworth were ready for business as soon as the ECB and government regulations permitted.
With the nets available, one-on-one coaching could engage children and refresh their interest in the game, and it is testament to Alex's work that Knebworth Park's junior membership is up significantly year on year.
Tony was instrumental in moving Harrow St Mary's from a public ground to a private club as well as building the foundations of Premier League status.
Over the last 20 years, he has taken it upon himself to constantly renovate the facilities which now house a women's team as well as colts teams and five adult teams.
During lockdown, Tony has taken his commitment to the club to a new level.
He helped set up an online booking system for cricket nets, prepared all the facilities in accordance with ECB and government guidelines, painted benches and introduced a one-way system for the club.
On top of this, the balcony has been repainted and a new scorers' area with glass protection and a signaling light set up. The downstairs tea room has had fairy lights and curtains installed. All have Tony's handiwork to thank.
Jonathan took over as chairman at Chiddingly this year and contributed heavily to the back office of the club as well as raising its profile on social media.
Jonathan has been responsible for keeping sponsors happy, the upgrade of facilites at the ground and ensuring the club is in a position to update records and important club documents.
Dorian has been regularly preparing the wicket and outfield at Rottingdean CC during lockdown.
He has also been maintaining the machinery and put the nets up when lockdown was relaxed. He ensured that the social distancing and hygiene requirements were in place before the club's nets opened.
Alan has been regularly preparing the wicket and outfield at Rottingdean CC during lockdown.
He also helped put the nets up when Lockdown was relaxed in preparation for the players returning to the ground.
Alan mows the outfield every week and keeps the driveway, nets and pavilion grass neat and tidy, giving hours of his time to the club.
Jack (pictured right with Rottingdean supporter Roger Beal) is the club's master of ceremonies at every event from auctions to the annual dinner.
Throughout lockdown, he kept the club going by organising a weekly quiz, the highlight of which was Spot the RCC player.
Jack also introduced "Who Is?' videos where players and friends of the club were asked to make suggestions in answer to implausible questions. These appeared weekly during lockdown. Jack also manages the club's Instagram page and kept people informed and amused.
He was one of the first people to volunteer as a club supervisor when the outdoor nets were allowed to be opened and then organised senior nets, juggling all this while working full time in his own electrical business.
Leighton Little, one of Rottingdean's juniors, was undergoing extensive chemotherapy and radiotherapy during lockdown and Jack put together messages of support from Sussex players, including Jofra Archer, to boost his morale.
Peter is a tireless worker for Mill Hill, helping to maintain and improve the a clubhouse on its last legs and a ground in constant need of care and attention.
This pandemic has sent him into overdrive. He has been working long hours at the club on an almost daily basis since government guidelines permitted him to do so. Working alone for the most part, or more recently in occasional small socially distanced working parties, Pete has overseen a whole host of significant improvements.
The clubhouse roof has been re-felted, pipe repairs have been undertaken and back-filled, a lengthy new fence has been erected, substantial path edging and car park reclamation has been undertaken.
Improvements have been made to the changing rooms and many other activities are also either under way or planned. Peter does this work purely out of a love for the club without any hope or expectation of reward or even much by way of a thank you from most members.
He is leading Mill Hill's Covid-19 management coordination efforts and has written the club's risk assessment end to end, as well as putting up signage, making floor markings, securing PPE, providing advice and generally been the ‘go to’ guy.
Once the ECB gave approval for one-on-one coaching to take place, Ian - Forton's level 2 coach - swung into action.
He came up with detailed plans to deliver secure coaching to junior members, which he submitted to the Shropshire Cricket Board for approval. Once he had that approval he set up a booking system to deliver (with help from his teenage son Joe) four sessions a day, five days a week.
Fully booked for every session, he did this for a number of weeks until lockdown restrictions changed to allow him to start small group sessions.
His nominator says: "Ian's commitment to deliver coaching to junior members has been incredible and the smiles he has brought to the faces has been inspirational".
Darren started at Rottingdean as a parent of two juniors, later becoming team manager and a community coach. Last year he helped organise local pub games which were hugely successful in terms of community spirit and club finances.
Just before Christmas, his son Leighton was diagnosed with cancer and has had extensive treatment during lockdown. Throughout lockdown, Darren posted cricket skills videos for the juniors using gardens and indoor spaces.
He also coordinated a social media video, in which a ball was thrown from junior to junior; it was a great way to keep the juniors in touch while they couldn't meet.
Darren was instrumental in reinstating the weekly, albeit socially distanced practices when lockdown eased. He continues to manage the under-13 team at the club.
Known affectionately as Mr Cricket, Adam has spent hours at his local club making sure it is was ready for everything to reopen, often with sidearm in hand delivering throwdowns for teammates.
His nominator says: "Adam epitomises everything that is good with club cricket, his enthusiasm is rivalled by nobody. When he’s not giving others a net he will have his automatic feeder out and be batting for hours into the late evening once everyone else has had their turn.
"A completely unselfish individual that Ashby Hastings Cricket Club is very lucky to have; you will not find a more enthusiastic cricketer in the land."
Leesa has shown unflagging effort to boost team spirits during a difficult summer.
Three or four times a week since lockdown she has organised Zoom fitness sessions, cheering everyone up and boosting mental and physical well being.
Leesa also runs sessions for the staff at the primary school where she works.
One of Leesa's many nominators said: "My 16-year-old daughter loves the sessions and I think it has kept her going on blue days. In short, she's an absolute gem!"
Another said: "It's kept me going through this period."
Following the floods in January which destroyed the ground at Bridgeholme, Keith has almost single-handedly cleared and cleaned the ground and rebuilt the river walls, as well as repairing the square and outfield.
His efforts, which have come despite the impact of Covid-19, have ensured the club can continue to play league cricket at their current home.
One of his many nominators says: "The damage would have broken many a club's spirit as a one-off but this is Keith’s third heavy flood in 10 years".
Another added: "The man is a legend and deserves recognition for his unwavering dedication".
Bryan has continued to maintain the ground at Southwater during lockdown.
He has dedicated his own time to ensuring the outfield is cut, the square given the TLC it requires and ensuring there have been pitches to practice on.
His nominator says: "Bryan has dedicated so much of his own time and fully deserves the recognition".
As groundsman at Old Glossop, the work David does often goes unrecognised, especially during the close season.
He has transformed the ground and square over the past 15 years, taking the club from having a notoriously low and slow wicket to one of the best in the league.
David takes great pride in the upkeep of the ground and at aged 72 is getting close to hanging up his mower, but he continues to commit his time in retirement to the ground.
During lockdown he has been an ever-present, ensuring the square remains pristine and keeping on top of the outfield.
His nominator says: "The players and committee do recognise and appreciate his efforts, especially at his age, but it would be wonderful for him to gain wider recognition as one of many hardworking and committed elderly groundsman who have been toiling throughout the Covid lockdown."
When Steve took over as chairman five years ago, his club didn’t have much of a youth set up - it now boasts a section some 70 members strong, thanks mainly to his hard work and networking with the local community.
Along with working for the NHS, and looking after two boys, he still manages to cut the outfield twice a week, roll the wicket once a day, cut the wicket, run all the social media sites and see over all of the club.
His nominator says: "Without this man as chairman the club wouldn’t be anywhere near where it is at the minute".
Alan lead from the front on much needed ground work in the lockdown period.
He strimmed and weeded acres of ground and car parks, and painted numerous benches and yards of fence.
His nominator says: "He has been worth his weight in gold to Southowram CC in this financially challenged period".
ian has kept the playing surface and square of Newton Aycliffe in its best ever condition and maintained essential equipment during this uncertain time.
In addition, he has liased with junior managers and senior players to recommence small group training sessions, fully risk assessed and with detailed procedures in place to ensure they are practical as well as safe.
Without Ian's efforts, the 40-plus cricketers, both junior and senior, would not have returned to training and rekindled their enthusiasm for the game.
His nominator says: "Ian is our club hero and we are very lucky to have him at Newton Aycliffe".
Those involved in the running of Houghton Main Miners have built an extension, refurbished the clubhouse, and repaired the old and current scoreboxes during lockdown.
Groundsman Ernie Heseltine has been integral to the maintenance of the ground, while Rob Wagstaff, Nathan Barrowclough, Kevin Haynes and Alan Haynes have also been heavily involved.
Their nominator writes: "A brilliant effort all around. Now we just need some cricket!"
Mark founded the Opening Up charity in 2014 following the suicide of Sefton Park's 24-year-old teammate Alex Miller and in the last six years he has delivered practical sessions to cricket clubs nationwide on what he calls ‘mental fitness’ – with principles that can be applied to their game, or to their everyday life.
His message has evolved in the five years hence and rather than focusing on outcomes, Opening Up promotes a positive, proactive approach to mental wellbeing.
During the coronavirus crisis Mark has stepped up in an incredible way. As well as his role as welfare officer and his Opening Up work, Mark has taken on the vacant cricket chair role throughout the pandemic.
This has involved liaising with captains, management board, cricket authorities and digesting the endless ECB and government guidance.
Mark organised nets usage and devised a booking system, making preparations for the club's long-awaited reopening and planning the return to training in small groups. All the while Mark has applied for grants and loans on behalf of club, taken part in Zoom calls with players to keep in touch, driven a 'Pay It Forward Scheme' and even took the time to speak to the BBC for an article on the problems facing club cricket.
There has been plenty of fun too: Mark devised and wrote a weekly Zoom quiz for members, organised a 'Team of the Century' competition and to fill time on empty Saturday afternoons he has been trawling the archives revisiting some classic games from Sefton Park's illustrious history. He has even organised litter picks to keep the club tidy.
Perhaps most importantly Mark has been contacting older club members to check they are okay and if there is any support the club can provide.
His nominator says: "He is a true inspiration".
Louis' nominator writes: "He keeps the club going even when he has three kids at home to look after, never asks for anything and does it for the love of the cricket club.
"If he doesn't commint himself not much will get done. Louis and his wife Amy keep cricket going in Mansfield".
At the end of a stellar club cricket career, most 50 somethings are content to amble around in the 4th XI, do a bit of umpiring, or doze on the boundary after a round of golf.
But Dan Allen had other ideas. He decided there might be a demand for good quality club cricket match highlight packages on YouTube. So was born Sanderstead CC TV, which Dan has extended into other social media channels, podcasts, vlogs and a merchandise store in an experiment which has gained over 16,000 subscribers and an amazing 4million views of his videos.
Dan's formula is to produce 20-minute highlight packages of Sanderstead games and post them the same day. He also produces vlogs using the players to discuss general cricket interest stories. Unexpectedly, 'village' content proved a great hit.
During lockdown the subscribers were desperate for content with the lack of any cricket at all so Dan set about producing classic match highlights and an almost daily Instagram feed of bloopers, skills and fun moments. Lockdown vlogs have also proved a big hit.
Comments on the YouTube channel from all over the world confirmed how the steady stream of content lifted spirits, provided entertainment and generally helped our viewers get through extremely challenging times.
Tom is Wytham club captain - organising team matters off the pitch - and is still a current playing member.
He has kept the club informed throughout lockdown, got players involved with a weekly quiz through Zoom and nominated members to write fictional match reports for the fixtures which we would have played, as well as keeping the ground mown.
Tom's wife, Emma, generally prepares our teas and he has sent pictures of cakes she has baked, just to maintain the idea that the cricket world keeps turning. Everything he writes, even the most serious COVID-19 advice, has made his teammates smile.
When the lockdown was relaxed, the nets at Rottingdean were opened in line with ECB restrictions.
A phone and paper booking was set up, which proved to be quite onerous.
Tim spent many hours researching online booking systems, set it up and is now the administrator. As his nominator says: "he saved me many hours a week with all his efforts".
Brian is head of ground and house at Farnham Royal.
While the club has been closed, he has arranged social members to help repair and varnish the clubhouse benches, decorate the building inside and out, keep the grounds as beautiful as ever, and get our nets up and running.
As his nominator says: "All this in his late 60s is quite a feat!"
Teacher Ali set up local junior cricket club, AJ Coaching Cricket Academy for children aged 5-14.
During lockdown not only has he volunteered to look after children of key workers in his school but he has also put together training drills on video for his cricket community.
He has continued and tirelessly kept cricket alive for the youngsters in Merton, south London.
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