HETHERSETT and Tas Valley Cricket Club combined their annual presentation evening with a firework display at their Flordon headquarters.Club chairman Tony Smith outlined a season that had seen the first team consolidate their standing in their first season in the Norfolk Alliance - finishing fourth in Division Three and taking part in the prestigious Carter Cup for the first time.

HETHERSETT and Tas Valley Cricket Club combined their annual presentation evening with a firework display at their Flordon headquarters.

Club chairman Tony Smith outlined a season that had seen the first team consolidate their standing in their first season in the Norfolk Alliance - finishing fourth in Division Three and taking part in the prestigious Carter Cup for the first time.

He paid tribute to the success of the second team who came top of Division Six of the Norfolk Alliance and won promotion to Division Five for the 2010 season.

Smith also praised the club's youth set-up which continues to go from strength to strength under the direction of Shaun Barker. The past season saw the U13 side go 'within a whisker' of winning the South Norfolk Community League.

The chairman presented youth team awards to the following: U11s best bowling, Nick Clarke and Jonathan Cooper; best batting, Tristan Henderson; player of the year, Crispin Clarke; most improved player, Louis Simmons. U13 best bowling, Oliver Hutt; best batting, Max Adams; player of the year, Joel Howard.

Joel Howard was named best bowler by the South Norfolk Community League and Oliver Hutt was named best batsman.

On the adult side, player of the year was once again first team captain Matt Ellis for some outstanding batting performances.

The clubman of the year award went jointly to Shaun Barker for his work with the youth teams and Matt Ellis for his work as fixtures' secretary. The trophy for outstanding performance of the season was awarded jointly to brothers Richard and Matt Ellis for their innings of 118 and 107 respectively in the Carter Cup win over Bradfield.

Other senior awards presented were: Young player of the year, Joel Howard; most improved player, Joe Brett; catching award (excluding wicketkeepers), Julian Emeny; catching award (including wicketkeepers), Nick Burrett; Duck Cup for most ducks, Assad Abbas and Nick Bureett; overall batting award, Matt Ellis (1,396 runs at an average of 49.86); overall bowling award, Assad Abbas 55 wickets.

Third team bowler of the year, Dale Clarke; batsman of the year, Ross Jones. Second team bowler of the year, John Curtis; batsman of the year, John Curtis. First team bowler, Assad Abbas; batsman, Dave Cosford.

Smith said: 'One of the highlights of the season was playing in the Carter Cup for the first time and beating an established side like Bradfield before narrowly losing to Sheringham.

'We also held a number of highly successful social cricket events such as a race night and super sixes tournament and a number of club barbecues. This has meant that the electronic store hut has now been fully paid for,' he said, adding that with so many good young players coming through the ranks, the club's future looks very bright.