Strong players vie for coveted medal

Cricket's night of nights, the Doug Hogue Medal presentation, will be held at Rovers Football Club tonight.

The Hogue medal was instituted in 2010-11 and two brilliant players, Shayne Bidwell and Paul Kennedy, were inaugural recipients.

It has since been won by Clint Yeates (2011-12), Jai Russell (2012-13), John Elliman (2013-14) and Bruce Gillingham (2014-15).

The Hogue medal was the brainchild of former Geraldton Regional Cricket Board executive officer Steve Davies, who suggested an award similar to the Brownlow or Clune medals was needed.

It has proven a great success in that it complements the Cricketer of the Year Award but is very different.

Cricketer of the year is determined on pure statistics, but the Hogue medal is decided on good cricket, not just good numbers.

Like its football counterparts, votes from each game, done on a 3-2-1 system, are given by the umpires and sealed so no-one has a running tally.

Yeates, who just won cricketer of the year for a second time, must however be a strong contender.

He enjoyed a wonderful season, with 527 runs, 15 wickets and 15 catches, and led his side superbly.

Bluff Point's Ryan Dixon will poll well after making 371 runs and proving an unexpected trump with the ball, taking 18 wickets as well as holding five catches.

Towns all-rounder Glenn Wishart will also poll strongly, with 380 runs, 19 wickets and four catches, but he missed four of 16 possible games which will count against him.

Sportsmans all-rounder Cody Bone missed even more cricket — half the season in fact —but had a huge impact when he played. It’s unlikely he can win but will rank highly.

Others who will surely get votes include Towns batsman Michael Travcich, Sportsmans all-rounder Lucas Horwood, veteran paceman Ashley Taylor and previous winner Elliman who finished the season strongly.

A number of other awards will be presented on the night for A and B-grade and the evening starts at 6pm.

Tickets are available through the clubs or by contacting Rick Arthur at tennisgero@hotmail.com.