It’s been a week to remember for Doug Bracewell. Days after his recall to the BLACKCAPS Test squad, the Central Stags allrounder has collected an armful of major men’s awards at the 2021 Central Districts Cricket Association Awards, presented in Napier last night.

For the first time in his career, Hawke's Bay's Bracewell (pictured above) is the winner of the premier Central Stags award for Player of the Year, after a season in which he performed with bat and ball in both red and white-ball cricket.

Bracewell was also voted as the Players’ Player of the Year by his peers, as well as receiving the trophy for Plunket Shield Player of the Year, and being named the joint winner of the Super Smash Player of the Year Award alongside pace teammate Blair Tickner.
 
Hawke's Bay's Tickner was the Dream11 Super Smash's leading T20 bowler nationally with 17 wickets at 20.52 and a strike rate of 14.82 while big-hitting allrounder Josh Clarkson (308 runs at 44.00, including three half centuries, and 11 wickets) was named The Ford Trophy Player of the Year in the season that he made a successful return to the bowling crease.
 
WHITE FERNS representative Natalie Dodd took out the major Central Hinds award for Player of the Year for the second time in three years as well as the female award for Dream11 Super Smash Player of the Year, while Jess Watkin’s all-round impact (267 runs including two half centuries at a phenomenal strike rate of 123.04 and 14 wickets at 17.92 with a best of 4-13) saw the Hinds white-ball co-captain named as the Hallyburton Johnstone Shield player of the season.
 
Nelson youngster Kate Gaging won Emerging Player of the Year after having made her debuts in both white-ball formats this season and fellow Nelson Nyxons representative Claudia Green was voted the Players’ Player by her peers.

Bracewell fought his way back from a lengthy injury lay-off that had seen him play just one Ford Trophy and one first-class game in the previous season to set the bar for his side this season.
 
He posted his third first-class century - a fighting effort in a record eighth-wicket stand against Auckland - in the second round of the Plunket Shield and the 27-cap Test representative went on to go past 2500 first-class runs for the Stags this summer and 3500 in an overall career that began as a teenager in 2008/09.

Bracewell averaged 42.66 in the Plunket Shield with the bat and combined that with 24 first-class wickets from a weather-shortened first-class Domestic season, including 15 at 26.20 for the Stags, as well as posting the first two T20 half centuries of his career, amid 223 runs at a 44.60 average in his rearguard role down the order. He also took an equal season best haul of 10 wickets in the Stags’ Dream11 Super Smash campaign that took the side to the Elimination Final.

Opening linchpin Natalie Dodd contributed 248 runs from just six innings to the Central Hinds’ one-day Hallyburton Johnstone Shield campaign at an outstanding 124.00 average, including an unbeaten 108*. 

Dodd was the team’s top run-scorer in the Dream11 Super Smash with 301 at a 97.41 strike rate, including an unbeaten 61*. With the wicketkeeping gloves, the Deputy Principal contributed 12 dismissals across the two white-ball campaigns, after having begun the season with a WHITE FERNS recall in Australia.

Central Districts U19 vice-captain, CD A representative and up and coming wicketkeeper-batsman Curtis Heaphy (Manawatu) added this year’s Central Districts Under-19 Player of the Year trophy to his mantlepiece after having been named Under-17 Player of the Year in the previous season - an honour that this year went to Josh Fairbrother of Hawke’s Bay. 
 
Heaphy was in the top two run-scorers nationally at this season’s NZC Under 19 Men’s Tournament with 310 runs from seven innings for CD at 77.50.

Selected for the inaugural New Zealand Women’s Under 19 squad this season, Cate Petersen (Hawke’s Bay) took out the CD women’s Under-19 award for the first time. Pedersen scored 151 runs from seven innings at the NZC Under 19 nationals, including two half centuries.

The premier inter-Districts awards went to Nelson’s Felix Murray who was named Chapple Cup Player of the Tournament and Wairarapa’s Stefan Hook who won the Hawke Cup Player of the Year for 2020/21. Glen Walklin was named CD’s Umpire of the Year for the third consecutive year.

2020/21 CENTRAL DISTRICTS CRICKET AWARDS

Age Group representative and District Awards
CD Under 17 Player of the Year – Josh Fairbrother (Hawke’s Bay)
CD Under 19 Player of the Year (Men) – Curtis Heaphy (Manawatu)
CD Under 19  Player of the Year (Women) – Cate Pedersen (Hawke’s Bay)
Chapple Cup Player of the Tournament – Felix Murray (Nelson)
Hawke Cup Player of the Year – Stefan Hook (Waiararapa)
Central Districts Umpire of the Year - Glen Walklin (Hawke’s Bay)
Scorer Recognition Award - Duncan Mitchell (Manawatu) and Bev Baker (Hawke’s Bay)

Central Hinds Awards
Dream11 Super Smash Player of the Year – Natalie Dodd (Taranaki)
Hallyburton Johnstone Shield Player of the Year – Jess Watkin (Manawatu)
Emerging Player of Year – Kate Gaging (Nelson)
Players’ Player of the Year – Claudia Green (Nelson)
Player of the Year – Natalie Dodd (Taranaki)

Central Stags Awards
Dream11 Super Smash Player of the Year – Blair Tickner (Hawke’s Bay) and Doug Bracewell (Hawke’s Bay)
The Ford Trophy Player of the Year – Josh Clarkson (Nelson)
Plunket Shield Player of the Year – Doug Bracewell (Hawke’s Bay)
Players’ Player of the Year – Doug Bracewell (Hawke’s Bay)
Player of the Year – Doug Bracewell (Hawke’s Bay)

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