LV= INSURANCE PRIDE OF CRICKET AWARDS: 2022 WINNERS

The winners of the 2022 awards have been announced.

Their stories are below.

PRIDE OF CRICKET AWARD

ROBIN MILLS, MISTLEY CC

Appropriately, Robin Mills was in the process of collecting one lifetime achievement award when he received an email from Mistley Cricket Club's treasurer to tell him that he was in the running to pick up another.

He is the winner of the LV= Insurance Pride of Cricket Award for 2022.

It runs in the family: Mills' father was a long-serving secretary of the football club for whom Robin also played into his forties, so loyalty to amateur sport is in his blood.

"Without him, the club would be a lot harder to run," says one clubmate. "Hopefully he realises what he's been doing all these years has been worthwhile.

"Robin does everything around the club, basically. All the jobs that you don't know exist or that you don't want to do, Robin does."

MEDIA HERO

JACKSON BENTLEY, THE CRICKET KID

What do England internationals Jos Buttler, Phil Salt and Sarah Taylor have in common? They're all fans of Jackson Bentley, the 11-year-old wicketkeeper taking social media by storm.

Jackson, who captains Lancashire at under-11 level alongside his commitments with Urmston CC and Nantwich CC, is better known as 'The Cricket Kid' and won the 2022 LV= Media Hero award, for, in the words of nominator Rob Arnold, his efforts in "bringing cricket to a wider audience".

With the help of dad, Nick, the youngster began filming videos of his cricket training during lockdown, inventing wicketkeeping drills using whatever they can find lying around the house and garden as well as producing batting and fitness clips, and posting them on Instagram.

From getting "300 or 400 views" on his first few videos, Jackson's posts now regularly reach thousands of people on social media – one viral post received over 16million views – while he has amassed just shy of 20,000 followers on Instagram alone.

FUNDRAISING HERO

ANDREW DERHAM, HORLEY CC

Horley Cricket Club is near Gatwick airport, which is appropriate... for the club is clearly going places.

Flourishing men's and women's teams and improving facilities have seen the club flying in recent years, and a lot of it is down to one man, Andrew Derham.

Nominated by club chair Colin Terry, Derham has won the LV= Fundraising Hero award for 2022.

Derham has a number of nicknames at the club, including Mr Fixit and Mr Raffles.

His latest triumph was championing an impressive net facility that cost £58,000.

COMMUNITY HERO

KAY BAIG, MANCHESTER BEE UTD

In 2012, Kay Baig was one of the 70,000 Games Makers that gave that summer's London Olympics personality, colour, and a friendly face.

Ten years on she has gone from Games Maker to dream maker, transforming the lives of thousands of girls and women in the South Asian community around Lancashire through cricket. And now she has won the LV= Community Hero award for 2022.

"I came back (from London) and I thought I need to get more involved in my community," she told The Cricketer. "From that day forward I've worked with communities, especially the South Asian communities and women and girls."

Upon packing in her 15-year business career, Baig embarked on bettering herself to the benefit of others. After volunteering with Lancashire Cricket Foundation on matchdays at Emirates Old Trafford, she achieved master coaching status with the International Coaching Academy and became a mindset and ECB Level Two coach, providing guidance for women for whom English is a second language. In 2019, the National Asian Cricket Council women and girl's manager founded Manchester Bee United, the first South Asian women's team in Lancashire.

YOUNG HERO

BEN LANE, CAM CC

Eighteen-year-old Ben Lane's passion for cricket is undeniable - and infectious.

"Whatever I can help people with - whether that's coaching, scoring, helping on the ground or just even on a Saturday or Sunday playing a game - just to see people happy, playing a game that I love, makes me happy," he says.

2022's been a busy year for the winner of the 2022 LV= Young Hero award. On top of the rigours of sitting his A Levels, the contributions he's made to his club Cam CC in Gloucestershire have been numerous.

He has been heavily involved with the youth section, coaching both the under-11s and under-13s, assisted with the delivery of All-Stars and Dynamos sessions, captained the Sunday side (re-established by Ben to transition youth players up to senior cricket), spent two days of coaching at a local junior school and sat on both junior and senior committees at the club.

As if that wasn't already enough. away from the club he has also worked with Gloucestershire Cricket Foundation (GCF), coaching the Super 1s disability team.

CLUB HERO

CLIVE FINNEY, LITTLE STOKE CC

Volunteers are the lifeblood of cricket clubs, but few will be able to match the commitment shown by Clive Finney to Little Stoke CC.

Introduced to the club by his father, a founder member, as a two-year-old in 1946, Finney has dedicated himself to the Staffordshire club, working his way from scorer to 1st XI captain, a position he held between 1974 and 1979. He later returned as 2nd XI skipper from 1985 to 1992.

Off the field, he put 60 years of service into the grounds, only stepping down from the role at the end of the 2022 season, and even as his 80th birthday approaches, remains actively involved in the day-to-day running of Little Stoke, sitting on the committee as secretary (a position he has held since 1996) and president (since 2016).

A colleague, Nick Gliddons, described him as "the epitome of a club person” while long-serving member, Nick Bratt, labelled him "a pillar of the club".

It should, therefore, come as little surprise that when searching for this year's LV= Club Hero, Finney came out on top.