TWO of the Bomaderry Cricket Club’s longest servants were honoured with life membership at the club’s 2016/17 presentation night at the Bomaderry Bowling Club.
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Paul Sawkins and Stuart Jeffrey were both recognised for their commitment to the Tigers club and became the 19th and 20th life members respectively.
They join the like of Graeme and Ian Sawkins, Bob and Sandra Webster, Greg Wellington, George Matthews, Mark Jennings, John Gunn, Tony Stevenson, John Saville and Daryl Koglin as life members.
During his time at the club, Sawkins played 252 matches, 205 of which were in first grade, scoring 3948 runs, claiming five wickets, taking 331 catches and 122 stumpings.
His career started in juniors where his cricketing ability was apparent early in making junior representative teams in under 12s in 1993/94, under 14s in 1995/96 and under 16s in 1997/98.
His senior career at Bomaderry started with only the occasional match before becoming a full-time member of the third grade side in 1996/97.
Sawkins tasted the first of many premiership successes in this third grade side in 1997/98 in the famous family team which was led by uncle Graeme Sawkins, and included Ian, Matt, Jed and Dave Sawkins.
He quickly progressed through the grades, playing his first full season in first grade in 1999/00, in which year he won the club’s most outstanding under 21 player.
In the 2001/02 season, Sawkins won the first of six first grade premierships which occurred in 2002/03, 2008/09, 2009/10, the famous tied final against Berry in 2010/11 and most recently guided a much younger side to victory in 2014/15.
He has built up a reputation as a big game player, winning the Bob Jennings medal for man of the match in his first grand final in 2001/02 and winning a second in 2009/10.
He also played a pivotal role in their most recent triumph, hitting the winning runs in the first innings and staving off Nowra’s bowling attack for the best part of a long second innings.
On top of his grand final success, Sawkins also won three one day championships and two Twenty20 competitions.
Sawkins will long be held as the most successful wicketkeeper the Shoalhaven District Cricket Association has seen – being the only wicketkeeper in modern times to have effected 100 stumpings in Shoalhaven first grade.
Sawkins has also had a distinguished career in representative cricket circles, having played a season of Jeffrey Cup, he also played nine seasons of Burns Cup, winning the competition in 2001/02 and also as captain in 2007/08 and 2009/10.
He was also recognised as Shoalhaven’s best player of the Burns Cup in 2002/03.
From Burns Cup, he also represented Southern Zone in country carnivals in 2002/03, 2004/05, 2005/06, 2006/07 and 2007/08 and was awarded the associations Hutchison award for his service to Shoalhaven representative cricket in 2007/08.
Amazingly, despite all of these amazing statistics, some of his greatest work for the club has come off the field as a curator.
He started curating the wicket while still in high school and continued doing so through until he completed University - he is actually the reason why our current curator Ian started doing the wicket.
He won the SDCA curator of the year in 2000/01, and in the same year, won his first clubman of the year.
He also held the role as the club’s treasurer for four seasons from 2001/02, before becoming the assistant secretary/ treasurer to Graeme Sawkins, he held this position right through until 2011/12.
In addition to all of this, he had official roles on the field as first grade captain and co-captain in 2005-06, 2006-07, 2010/11 and 2012/13.
Not to be outdone, Jeffrey joined the club 29 seasons ago in 1987/88, where he played fourth grade for the season.
He plied his trade between fourth and second grade for the next three seasons, before wining his first title with Bomaderry in second grade’s 1991/92 team – 25 season ago.
From here on in, Stu was an integral member of the first grade set up, as he played in the first grade premiership side of 1992/93.
The amazing thing about this stat is that 24 seasons on, Jeffrey is still spearheading our first grade bowling line up, evidenced by winning the bowler of the season this year.
Jeffrey played in the 1995/96 grand final that they lost, but was named the club’s most outstanding bowler for the season.
He had quite a break away from Shoalhaven cricket from 1996/97 through until 2004/05, before resuming his Bomaderry career in 2005/06.
He was the spearhead of the bowling attack in four more Bomaderry first grade premiership teams in addition to his 1995/96 triumph, winning in 2008/09, 2009/10, the famous tie of 2010/11 and the latest win in 2014/15 – in which he was at the crease when the winning runs were hit by Paul Sawkins.
Jeffrey was also a part of three first grade one day titles.
His representative career included a stint in the Burns Cup side that won in 1995/96, in which he was also the most successful bowler for the side with 10 wickets in the series.
He has played a significant role in the club off the field for a number of years, having been president for a year in 1995/96 before leaving the area, and then resuming this role between 2008/09 and 2011/12.
He has now taken up the position of club treasurer, and his influence on the running of the club has been vital for us this season.
Major Bomaderry Cricket Club awards for the 2016/17 season:
Senior cricketer - Blake Munilla
Tiger medallist - Justin Ganderton
Sawkins family clubman of the year - Brad Ingram
Vaughan Evans memorial trophy - Craig Kuncio
Sandra Webster medal (new award) - Rebecca Ingram
Junior cricketer - Ryan Henry
Under 21s - Zac Blattner
Most runs - Travis Roth
Most wickets - Justin Ganderton
T20 player of the year - Matt Bell