Vintage Year for Isle of Man
2004 was a good year for Manx Cricket and an exceptional one for St Johns. The Mullen-e-Cloie club almost completed a clean sweep of the major trophies. They won the Standard Bank League, the Tinker Cup, the League Cup and the Six-A-Side tournament. The only top prize to elude them was the evening Aon Cain League. Jon Norrington led the team with style and personally had a great season. He hit more than 600 runs at an incredible average of 76-including three centuries. In addition Jon took 21 wickets at just over 12 each. The skipper was backed up by some excellent work from the rest of the side so congratulations to St Johns for some great performances and a campaign to be proud of.
Looking at 2004 generally, it was the batsmen who held sway. Eleven centuries were scored-including Johnny Palmer hitting 117 in just nine overs. Valkyres won the Cain league on the last match when they beat Peel while Crosby reversed their usual habit which is to have a poor start to the year and then go great guns in the second half. This year, around the half way mark and after some excellent play, they found themselves in number two slot in the Karran. But then, alas, they slowly slipped down. The club reached the final of the Tinker Cup, but were hit by injuries and holidays.
Cronkbourne, last season's champions, were also badly hit by absences. Simon Watson had a good campaign with a tally of over 700 runs at an average of 44. Ronaldsway won the MAC Financial Forrester Division One and retained the IoM Bank Blincoe Cup. They were boosted by a formidable array of bowling as Sean Crossley, David Ward, Stevie Wicks, Brian Gartland and George Broad all had a bumper haul. Ramsey won the Forrester Two and put in some good performances in the Karran.
The youth scene was vibrant. There was a new highly successful Lloyds TSB Under-11 league plus the Under-13 and Under-15 divisions. Castletown won the U11 and Cronkbourne the U13. The two clubs also finished joint top of the U15 with identical records and then, believe it or not, tied in the play-off! A second play-off was washed out by the rain and so the Championship was shared. There was a very successful tour of Holland for the Island Juniors who won one match, lost another and then saw their third game abandoned because of rain.
On the national scene the Island had a thrilling win over the MCC in June and finished runners-up to Guernsey in the Four Islands Tournament. Scotty Pearce won the award as the best bowler in the competition.
The season culminated with the IOMCA Dinner. ECC Ambassador Mike Gatting attended as guest speaker and the following day undertook some coaching with junior players.
But the Big News of course was that the Isle Of Man were admitted as an Affiliate member of the ICC. This is a real feather in our cap and opens many doors and brings exciting prospects. Watch this space!