Sideline Sid Sports correspondant & historian www.sunlive.co.nz

The Bay of Plenty Cricket prize-giving at the brand new Bay Oval pavilion at Blake Park took centre stage for Sideline Sid last Saturday afternoon.

The event was a celebration of excellence in Bay of Plenty Cricket recognising the achievements of players, coaches, umpires and volunteers during the recently-completed cricket season.

Current Northern Knights coach James Pamment kept the crowd enthralled, with his dry humour and sage words, talking about his journey from playing cricket and football in Yorkshire as a young man.

James talked about his holistic approach to cricket that encompasses achieving excellence on and off the field of play. A new set of team values established by the players contributed greatly to the success of the Northern Knights this season, says James.

The Northern Districts professional side won the HRV T20 Cup, which books them a berth in the Champions League in India during September-October 2014, against the best T20 teams in the world.

Under James' mentoring, they also made the final stanza of the Ford Trophy before tasting defeat from Wellington Firebirds. They also won two of five matches in the time-honoured Plunket Shield four-day competition.

The Knights coach also spoke about the Bay of Plenty cricket pathway, with a good number of his Northern Knights side coming from the Bay of Plenty junior and senior cricket ranks.

Bay of Plenty Cricket Player of The Year Brett Hampton is one such young man that's travelled the BOP pathway to Northern Knights selection. Brett's genuine class was shown in two 2014 encounters with Bay of Plenty's archrivals Hamilton. In the successful Hawke Cup defence against the Waikato side, the Bay master blaster anchored his team's innings with 103 runs. His five wickets in the Bay's Fergus Hickey Rosebowl two-day victory was a match-winning performance, which helped beat the Bay's arch rivals twice in three weeks.

There is no better example of the local cricket pathway than our own Black Cap-batting star Kane Williamson, who was awarded the Bay of Plenty First Class Player of the Year trophy. A total of 1331 runs in all three forms of the game for New Zealand were highlighted by his majestic 578 runs in test cricket at an average of 52.5.

The Alan Cotter Services to Cricket went to Lyn Govenstock, for her sterling work in fostering and administration of junior cricket in the region. Ross Ladyman was awarded the Peter Wright Services to Umpiring trophy, with Peter Swan receiving the David Johnston Services to Coach Award. The three awards recognise the volunteer contribution of excellence in our local game.

With recent cricket memories tucked away for the winter break, our attention now turns back to the local rugby season. The Easter break brings a smorgasbord of Baywide rugby, with two rounds being played on Saturday and Monday. The match-up of the season so far will take place on Easter Monday at the Tauranga Domain, with defending Baywide Premier title-holders Tauranga Sports squaring off against Rotorua heavyweight Whakarewarewa.