Kentish Gazette Canterbury & District
Promising academy players recognised with awards
Three promising cricketers were recognised at the annual Kent Cricket Academy awards.
The John Aitken Gray Trophy was presented by Myrna Gray, in memory of her late husband, to wicketkeeperbatsman Ollie Robinson, who has been a regular in Kent’s 2nd XI, top scoring with 114 against Sussex.
Robinson has represented England under-19s in one day and Test series against India this summer and has also made his List A debut for Kent on the FGS Plant Tour to the West Indies.
He plays his club cricket at Beckenham, attends Chislehurst & Sidcup Grammar School and follows current first team stars who received the award, including Daniel BellDrummond, Adam Ball and Alex Blake.
The Colin Page Scholarship, presented in memory of the former Kent player and coach, was presented to under-17 bowler Taylor Chandler.
Page coached many cricketers over the years but his love for developing young homegrown talent saw him spend many hours during the winter months in the indoor schools at both Canterbury and Sevenoaks.
Taylor plays at Chestfield and attends Canterbury Academy. He is a right-arm seamer who was identified by the Kent under-17 performance squad coaches as an individual who has shown a high level of commitment towards his cricket during the winter training and summer match programme.
Highlights for Taylor have included a match-winning five wickets against Surrey in the ECB Under-17 One-day Cup and he was leading wicket-taker for the under-17 team.
Taylor has also recently returned from the national Super 4s competition having been selected for the London and East team. He received the award from Robert Gurr from Kent’s academy programme sponsors Kent Reliance.
The George Pope Memorial Cup is awarded in honour of a teacher in south east London, who became a skilled identifier and developer of talented young cricketers within London Schools Cricket Association in the 1940s.
He set up Kent Schools Cricket Association in 1951. When he died in 1975, a cup was bought by his wife Edna to be awarded annually to a player who had contributed to Kent Schools teams over several years and is now awarded annual to an outstanding Kent under-15 boy.
The award this year went to Joe Gordon, a batsman from Canterbury who attends St Edmund’s School.
He has represented Kent under-15s, who were ECB national champions, and the Kent under-17 squad.
On his debut for the under-17s, Gordon scored 88 and 31 against Middlesex, and was also selected for the Bunbury Festival for a second successive year.