Photo Credit: Queensland Cricket
A host of outstanding contributors to Community Cricket in the State have been recognized by Queensland Cricket as part of Cricket Australia’s 2020-21 A Sport For All awards.
Forming part of this week’s National Volunteer Week, with a theme of Recognise. Reconnect. Reimagine, Queensland Cricket had one national finalist acknowledged from the list of State winners ahead of this evening’s virtual national presentation awards event.
The 10 categories recognize outstanding achievements and contributions to community sport in Queensland, which is largely carried out by its volunteers.
Southern Districts Magpies from Toowoomba was a Finalist in the Inclusion and Diversity Initiative of the Year for their efforts in running a successful “All-Abilities” program to allow anyone with a disability to come and learn the basics of cricket.
Queensland Cricket CEO Terry Svenson congratulated Southern Districts on their national acknowledgement.
“We know there are a lot of very dedicated people involved in our sport and Matthew and Maddelyn Hansson from Southern Districts are outstanding examples of this,’’ he said.
“Their nomination by Paul Wilson, who is a leading disability advocate in Toowoomba, highlighted that creating and running an All Abilities Program was a significant effort. Matt has been a below knee amputee since 2017 and has overcome adversity to play for the Magpies in the senior competition.”
“He and Maddelyn also have a nephew with cerebral palsy and their determination to make cricket as inclusive as possible in their community through an All-Abilities program at their club was rightly identified as a very worthwhile and personally rewarding commitment.”
“On behalf of Queensland Cricket, we congratulate all of Queensland’s ‘A Sport For All’ national nominees and state winners, and provide a heart-felt ‘thank you’ to all our volunteers who successfully took on the job of keeping cricket vibrant and healthy during the pandemic.”
The National awards will begin at 7pm tonight on Cricket Australia’s Facebook and YouTube channel.
2020-21 Queensland Cricket ‘A Sport For All Awards’ – State Winners
Match Official of the Year: David Staines, SEQ
Community Coach of the Year: Joel Bock, Mackay Whitsundays
Club of the Year: Walkerston Cricket Club, Mackay Whitsundays
Young Community Leader: Callan Sunderland, NQ
Women and Girls Initiative: Valleys District Cricket Club Colour Blast, BN
Technology & Media Initiative: Cricket Ipswich, SEQ
Inclusion and Diversity Initiative of the Year: Southern Districts Magpies CC, DDSWQ
Cricket in Schools: Rob Hillier (West Moreton Anglican College), SEQ
Indoor Facility of the Year: Sunshine Coast Indoor Sports, Sunshine Coast
Community Partnership: Redlands Sharks & Redlands Special School, BEARs
Junior Cricket Initiative of the Year: Metropolitan South West, MSW
Association of the Year: Cricket Gold Coast, Gold Coast
Details on the achievements of each of the State winners can be found below:
Community Cricket Awards
Community Match Official of the Year
An umpire or match official (such as a scorer) who leads by example in championing safe, fair and enjoyable cricket for all
David Staines
David has been an incredible assistance to both country umpires and Queensland Cricket in 2020-21 by taking a lead role in helping manage country Regional Umpire Coordinators and providing a link into QC Umpires and Scorers Association (QCUSA). David sat on the QCUSA committee as the Qld Country Umpire delegate. He also provided Representative (Level 2) accreditation training as well as continuing to umpire and coordinate his own region, SEQ.
Community Coach of the Year
A coach who exemplifies coaching The Australian Way. Someone who has gone out of their way to make sure that participants are supported to develop both their skills and a lifelong love of cricket
Joel Bock
Joel is the President and Head Coach of Moranbah Junior Cricket. He is a Primary School PE Teacher, who steered Moranbah cricket back onto the pitch by forming a fresh new committee and delivering a fun, skilled and supportive season for the Junior Cricketers of Moranbah.
Some of Joel’s achievements are as follows –
• First season of Moranbah Cricket in 4 years, yielding 90 player registrations.
• Planned, set up, and delivered (with additional coaches) both a Junior Blasters and Master Blasters program.
• Utilised his connection as a teacher to align cricket in the curriculum, working to develop a lifelong love of cricket and ensuring kids in all 3 local schools were aware of the upcoming programs.
Club of the Year
A community cricket club that actively creates welcoming environments and seeks to create sustainable participation and growth through good governance, volunteer support and inclusive on field programs.
Walkerston Cricket Club
2020-21 has seen Walkerston Cricket Club, who are part of the Mackay Cricket Association, thrive off the back of six years of hard work laying a foundation for success. The club has invested over $180,000 into facility upgrades (half club raised and half grants). This investment includes the addition of a pavilion to the clubhouse, new training nets, new lighting, new synthetic centre wicket, and a refurbished amenities block. All the work carried out by volunteers, has culminated in the club winning both senior and junior club championships last season in the Mackay Cricket Competition, a first for the club.
Young Community Leader
A young person, under the age of 25 who positively impacts those around them through their off-field leadership in volunteering
Callan Sunderland
Callan, hailing from the Home Hill Cricket Association, coaches local representative players including leading a pre-season program as well as continuing to provide face to face coaching during the season for players and teams. He also led a charity cricket event in Home Hill known as ‘Bash for Brain Cancer’ fundraiser. He formed a partnership with Cure Brain Cancer Foundation and received contributions from 15 local companies support the event. Callan also actively leads the Burdekin interschool cricket competition, to ensure all students wishing to play cricket can be involved.
Women and Girls Initiative
This award looks to celebrate the outstanding delivery of female based experiences by finding clever or innovative ways to engage and grow their program
Valley District Cricket Club Colour Blast Girls Camp
The Valleys District Cricket Club hosted an all-girls event during the summer holidays as a fun and unique way to recruit new girls to the club’s Cricket Blast and Junior programs. The day featured colour blast cricket, design-a-jersey, yoga session, Qld Fire player appearances, water games, inflatables, food, and cricket activities suitable for all levels and abilities. Over 30 girls came along and the club received incredibly positive feedback from both the girls and their parents. The club qualified for CA’s Growing Cricket for Girls funding as one of Australia’s “leading clubs” and strategically applied the financial assistance to recruiting new female participants. This kept costs to a minimum for the participants and added extra value to the day. Several volunteers worked together to plan and run the event, including multiple players from the club’s women’s team. The club also worked closely with QC staff to utilize resources and promote through various channels.
Technology & Media Initiative
An individual, club or association who has used technology to create a connection to its members, whether by reducing volunteer time, connecting members through social media or enhancing participant experience
Cricket Ipswich
Cricket Ipswich is a newly formed Association, with Ipswich Hornets and Ipswich West Moreton Cricket Association amalgamating recently. The Association identified last season that they needed a more effective strategy to recruit younger players (Junior Blasters) to the local clubs. Cricket Ipswich President Mike Stoodley engaged Andrew Tazelaar, a former local Ipswich player who has a business in Social Media (Binnacle Training), to set up a social media campaign. This saw approximately 120 kids sign up to local club Cricket Blast programs across January and February. This partnership will continue to work together to create more Social Media initiatives to get more kids playing Cricket in Ipswich.
Inclusion and Diversity Initiative of the Year
This award looks to acknowledge the outstanding delivery of diverse and inclusive experiences by finding clever and innovative ways to engage and grow their offering
Southern Districts Magpies CC
The Southern Districts Magpies CC ran an “All-Abilities” program to allow anyone with a disability to come and learn the basics of the sport, via the exceptional services of Matthew & Maddelyn Hansson
Matt and Maddy are two young adults that are passionate and dedicated to providing inclusion opportunities to the community. Both work in the disability sector, but Disability and inclusion is more than a job to them. Matt has been a below knee amputee since 2017 and has fought adversity himself, but he still today is able to play for his beloved Magpies in the senior competition. Matt and Maddy also have a nephew with Cerebral Palsy, which adds to their passion in which they live and breathe inclusion and diversity. They commenced the program with a Free Come and try day and had around 50% of the participants involved with a disability. Matt & Maddy also helped run the SDMCC’s Pink Stumps day. Again they ensured that children were highly involved in the day and went to the extent of having a Disability Employment Service Provider as a Sponsor to help promote and show Inclusion and Diversity in the region.
*This nomination has been recognised as a finalist for the Cricket Australia Community Cricket Awards
Cricket in Schools
A school, ambassador or initiative that celebrates the connection between School, student and the broader cricket community
Rob Hillier (West Moreton Anglican College)
Rob, a former player, has been a keen driver for Cricket and created a full cricketing pathway at the school for Prep to Grade 12. This included School HPE programs, School Cups, StreetSmarts T20 Challenge and widespread participation in the TAS Cricket Competitions. He has also developed the ‘Eaglets’ program which has resulted in many primary school students playing senior cricket for the college and then heading out to play local club cricket in Ipswich. The Eaglets program is a Junior Blaster Program that runs in Term 1 and 2, off the back of a Cricket Blast and HPE program in Term 4 from the previous year. He coaches the Colleges 1st XI team and the Met West School Boys side which won the 19s Division in November 2020.
Indoor Facility of the Year
An Indoor facility that embraces the connection with the community and cricket to provide the best program experience to its participants
Sunshine Coast Indoor Sports
Sunshine Coast Indoor Sports owners Matt and Nikki Antrobus proactively sourced information and support from Queensland Cricket to deliver an indoor Cricket Blast Entry Level Program, to set up a relationship with local clubs & community. The program was designed to give further options for local juniors to participate during the season if weekend cricket wasn’t currently an option. Thirty-nine children took part in the program. The centre linked with two community cricket clubs to ensure a relationship was built for the kids to have an outdoors playing option in future seasons. The relationship also allowed the centre to promote their own competitions to a wider audience including parents & senior players. This program is the first step of a broader vision to establish a sustainable winter junior indoor cricket competition.
Community Partnership
This award recognises outstanding leadership and support in building community-based partnerships that provide positive outcomes to the Cricket community (E.g. Local Government, multiple sporting clubs, community not for profit groups etc)
Redlands Sharks & Redlands Special School
The Redlands Sharks Cricket Club & Redland District Special School have worked together to deliver a combination of programs for the students at the school. After the partnership first started in 2019 to assist with the training of RDSS students to compete in a local Life Stream competition, Redland Sharks President Nick Egan and Secretary/Registrar Joy Brewster (alongside QC staff and Redland-Victoria Point Sharks Sporting Club Development Officers) organised and delivered two coaching programs to over 60 children in 2021.
Program 1 was a Junior Blasters model, where 48 participants went through a modified skill program to teach the kids the basics of the game. Program 2 was a coaching program for the team of students who represent Redland District Special School in the Life Stream competition with surrounding special schools. The aim is to build the platform for the 2021-22 season, to enable Redlands Sharks to host Redlands Special School kids at their club, participating in club competitions.
Junior Cricket Initiative of the Year
This award looks to acknowledge the outstanding delivery of junior cricket experiences by finding clever and innovative ways to engage and grow their junior offering with a focus on education, fun and social connection
Metropolitan South West
In season 2020-21, the MSW committee introduced a T20 stage 3 competition, where kids could be involved in something that looks and feels different. The committee wanted to have a key attraction for this format and so decided to use coloured clothing and a pink ball. Clubs were able to be involved and show their colours on the days. This initiative gave kids who weren’t interested in long game formats an opportunity to be involved, make new friends and be physically active. The association’s primary focus for this comp was enjoyment and engagement and thus decided to have no individual MyCricket stats available. The reason is, this would allow kids to engage better, not worrying about their individual stats, but rather focus on the team and having fun.
Association of the Year
A cricket Association that actively works to create a sustainable competition that provides opportunities for everyone to have the chance to play cricket
Cricket Gold Coast
Cricket Gold Coast have had an exceptional season in terms of growth and development. Starting with the association run Woolworths Master Blaster program, which now has 43 teams playing across the coast each Friday night under lights. This competition feeds into the under 11s program, which has grown so rapidly that field shortage has become an issue. Junior Cricket has seen a solid retention rate and further growth through new competitions, such as the Under 17 program. In the senior space the biggest development is in the rapidly expanding over 40’s competition. One of the biggest achievements is the success of the under 17s program, which splits into 3 divisions, allowing players to experience playing on turf at a younger age and increase retention of players who would otherwise struggle against the stronger competitors.
