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Annual Meal & Club Presentation Night

Date: Saturday 4 October, 2003

Venue: Ben Bower's, Canning Circus, Nottingham

The 2003 club presentation night was held at Ben Bower's restaurant on Saturday, 4 October 2003.

Organisers Nigel & Jill Smith got proceedings underway by welcoming around 40 players and guests. Each seating place was named and the person's individual choices were written on the back. The name tag then acted as a raffle ticket at the end of the meal - well done Gill!

For some reason, the top table seemed to get a high proportion of prizes in the raffle. Nobody chose the prize they had brought in! As is the standard procedure in these events, chairman Geoff Pook contributed an entertaining after dinner speech. A brief mention was given to the season 2002 winners (who only got their trophies at the end of August!) Well done to Geoff Moore (batting), Stefan Boss (bowling), Richard Odell (1st XI player of year) and Peter Shaw (2nd XI player of year). Mark Wallbank received the coveted Clubman trophy.

Geoff continued by saying that Wilsons had an extremely successful season - collecting 3 trophies.

Although the 1st XI did not gain promotion from division 1C of the Gunn & Moore South Notts League (for the 1st season since the league's inception) they performed exceedingly well. Of the 4 teams that finished above them in the league, they did the double over champions and local rivals Ellerslie, came within 4 runs of beating 2nd placed Newark, whilst they beat Thurgarton and Thrumpton once each - only losing the 2nd game against Thrumpton on the last ball.

The club record score of 307 was missed by just 2 runs in a victory over Risley and Keyworth were bowled out for just 25 - Wilsons knocking off the runs in 12 balls (despite Eric Dalby being out for a duck!)

Skipper Stefan Boss was the star with the bat, scoring over 1000 runs in the process and he was duly named "Batsman of the Year". Star all-rounder Imran Khan was not far behind Stefan in the batting with the pair both scoring centuries in the demolition of last season's champions Risley. Imran was the leading wicket taker and also taking in to account his batting he was named "1st XI player of the year". In Imran's absence, Fiz Ahmed accepted the trophy from skipper Stefan Boss.

Despite being the leading wicket taker Imran did not win the bowler of the year award. Due to it being worked out on an average and a minimum of 10 wickets, it was 2nd XI skipper Les Hardy who sheepishly collected the "Bowler of the year" award.

The 2nd XI won division 2F on the SNCL, losing just 3 games in the process. Skipper Les Hardy praised the all-round team effort throughout the season. Several players scored runs at vital times and the wickets were shared around. Young Tom Moore's 3 for 2 in 8.4 overs was mentioned but it was the quick fire batting of Ray Smithson that deservedly won him the "2nd team player of the year" award - the Bob Fleming trophy, which was presented to Ray by Bob's widow, Linda.

Les Hardy also organised a successful Evening League side that won Division 2 and picked up the Plate Cup. In the absence of skipper Ian Buckley, the two trophies were presented to Vasim Choudhary and Sean Bush.

It was no surprise when the "Clubman of the year" award was presented to Les Hardy for his sterling work for the club over the season.

With several younger players coming through, the future looks bright for Wilsons. Wilsons will continue to play at the Coronation Ground, Wilford Lane despite the closure The Chateau restaurant and the continuing development of the area adjacent to Wilford Lane.

Following the meal we adjorned to the dance floor - a great night was had by all!