Graeme Lawes was named as the winner of the Keith Martin Club Member of the Year award at Saturday Night's Dinner and Dance. Graeme has been manager of one of our colts sides for five seasons, and in 2021 his U11s side enjoyed great success as they finished as runners-up in the Havering League and then made the final of the Central Cup where the team put in a brilliant performance before losing by nine runs to Brentwood. The U11s side is always well behaved and well disciplined and a credit to Upminster Cricket Club which is a reflection of Graeme's work with the team. His side played more than 25 games in 2021 and Graeme was still trying to arrange games into mid-September.

As well as his work with his colts side, in 2021 Graeme took on the captaincy of the 7th XI. The club has not run a 7th XI for a few seasons, but with a new crop of youngsters coming through our older colts sides it was clear we needed to run one, and "Lawsey" stepped up to the plate. Running a lower eleven team is never an easy task, running the "lowest" side in the club, playing on a ground with no changing rooms next to it and having a team of people playing their first season of senior cricket is a really tough task!! Despite all this Graeme took on the challenge and by doing so ensured that eight or nine of our young players were able to play senior cricket on weeks where this otherwise may not have been the case.

Also nominated for the award were Angela Green, Vicky Waters and Rob Mack. Angela and Vicky were jointly nominated for the amazing work they have put in to continue the development of our girls and ladies section which was started by Kerry Quinlan. From an almost standing start both Angela and Vicky have led our softball and hardball ladies teams in competitions against other local clubs. Within the club both are also responsible for running a Women's Windmill Whack team and have also been instrumental in signing up many competitors to this year's Windmill Walk which took place during lockdown. In addition to these senior roles, Angela and Vicky both also run an age group in the junior section with Angela running the senior school aged girls group and Vicky looking after our Minis squad. Both have also taken their coaching badges and are regulars helping out at training in both the summer and winter.

Rob has been a permanent fixture on the club's committee for a number of years and in recent times has combined the roles of Secretary and Head of House and Grounds. This year the club's main ground pitch was awarded second place in the entire Essex League (46 clubs/pitches) and this is a testament to the work Rob has put in alongside our excellent groundsman Mark Severn. Club members of all levels will also have noted the marked improvement to the playing surfaces at Coopers and Campion thanks to the efforts of Rob over the last 24 months.

Congratulations to Graeme and all of the nominees. All have made a huge contribution to the club in recent times.