COLLINGWOOD ENJOYS A TREBLE AWARD HAUL
DURHAM STAR WINS PLAYER, PLAYERS’ PLAYER AND BATSMAN OF THE YEAR AWARDS
Paul Collingwood capped an incredible season with three awards at Durham’s 2017 Player of the Year Dinner, held at the Hilton Hotel, Gateshead.
The 41-year-old’s haul included the headline award, Player of the Year, as voted for by the club’s members, with an overwhelming share of the vote.
Collingwood also picked up the Players’ Player of the Year and Batsman of the Year after a record-breaking year with the bat, which included the club’s first Nat West T20 Blast century against Worcestershire.
The Specsavers County Championship captain added another three hundreds in the four-day format, including a career-high firstclass score for Durham of 177 against Derbyshire, and he passed 1,000 Championship runs for the season with a season-ending average of 49.40.
He added 224 Royal London One-Day Cup runs, including 73 not out in the memorable run-chase against Nottinghamshire Outlaws. He also finished as the Jets’ topscorer in the T20 Blast with 346 runs.
The new Breakthrough Player of the Year award, in place of the Young Player, was awarded to Cameron Steel after a sensational first season in the professional ranks for the 22-year-old. Steel became the club’s youngest double centurion against Leicestershire in August in a season which yielded 899 first-class runs at an average of 40.86.
His maiden first-class century came against Northamptonshire earlier in the year, which he brought up with a towering six.
That moment was also up for Champagne Moment of the Year but was beaten to the post by Graham Onions, whose record-breaking 519th first-class wicket for Durham ran out on top in a vote by supporters.
Bowler of the Year was awarded to Chris Rushworth, who took 58 wickets across all formats in 2017 with a best of 5/52 against Glamorgan, while Paul Coughlin was awarded Fielder of the Year for his athleticism across all formats of the game.
Batsman Gareth Harte won Second XI Player of the Year after a prolific year for Neil Killeen’s side. Harte struck a mammoth 183 in the Championship win over Northamptonshire and fell just shy of twin hundreds in the home encounter with Yorkshire.
The Community Player of the Year was handed to Brydon Carse for his outstanding support of Durham CCC’s Foundation throughout the season.