GM celebrate 2018 Cricketer Village Cup top performers

The 2018 winners of GM's Performance of the Round competition visited the GM factory to collect their prize

With winter nets for 2019 soon to start for most clubs a small cluster of players on January 24 were celebrating their performances of 2018, in the unique setting of the Gunn & Moore bat factory in Nottingham.

GM were hosting the 2018 winners of their Performance of the Round competition, which rewards an outstanding contribution in each round of The Cricketer Village Cup. They will also be running the competition in 2019. The winners were treated to a tour of the factory, giving them the chance to see how GM's bats are handcrafted on site. They also received a commemorative GM bat with details of their performances etched onto the bat face. The awards were presented by Glamorgan and GM's Craig Meschede.

^{The winners had a go at batmaking on the tour}

Such winners present included cup winner Richard Malthouse of Folkton & Flixton, whose performance in the semi-final won him a POTR award. He was joined by Ahsan Sayed, whose club Fillongley were on the receiving end of Malthouse’s classy 80 which allowed Flixton’s chase to become a canter.

"I want to forget the semi-final as quickly as possible!" Sayed exclaimed. "The lad Malthouse absolutely destroyed us."

Sayed was soon to discover on the day that as well as winning a POTR award, he was also to be graced with the Performance of the Tournament accolade. He was truly talismanic in Fillongley’s round-five victory over Worcestershire’s Hagley. With a century from their opener Hagley were off to a flyer.

Sayed pegged them back, taking 4 for 45 with the innings finishing on 279. "We were behind the eight ball from ball one. Their opener was fantastic for his 121 but he ended up playing a couple of false shots, got out and then I had my way with them," reflected Sayed.

He followed this up by hitting an unbeaten 97 to chase down the 280 target in the final over of the game. "I don’t think I’ll a play a better knock than that," he said humbly.

As winner of the performance of the tournament Sayed will receive a full bag of GM kit and a handmade bat.

^{Ahsan Sayed receives his award from Glamorgan's Craig Meschede and GM's Tom Coffey} 

It was also the perfect chance to look ahead to the 2019 Cricketer Village Cup. Malthouse explained preprations have already begun for Folkton & Flixton’s defence of the cup: "We’ve been training hard in preparation for next year’s tournament. We’ve got a lot of young lads who will be a year older so hopefully they will be a year better also.

"Getting to the final meant a lot because we’d got so close before. I think we’ve been to the semi-finals twice before so to actually get to the final was really good."

Sayed shared similar sentiments: "We started nets a couple of weeks ago. This tournament is more or less at the heart of how well we want to do in 2019. We’ve got two players that have now qualified for the tournament under the rules. Hopefully we’ll go one step better this time.

"We actually made the semi-finals in the first ever National Village Cup [in 1972] and we’ve always been trying to emulate them. We got there in 2010 and we’ve always taken this tournament seriously since it started – as seriously as Saturday cricket.

"It’s a fantastic tournament which is great for small club like ours. We’re away from any big cricket clubs so it’s hard to attract players, so this is a really important way of bringing players to the club. It gets our name in the papers so we can attract local talent."

Sayed’s final word was a thanks to GM… "I wanted to thank Gunn & Moore for the fantastic tour. It’s been eye-opening finding out how we get from the point where the wood is sourced to the point where the bat is made, along with an inside look at all the fantastic people with all their great skills."

GM will be running the Performance of the Round competition in 2019 - be sure to upload scorecards to get performances recognised. Is your club eligible to enter the Cricketer Village Cup? Enter here