Darwin Cricket Celebrates Successful Junior Cricket Season

Overall, junior participation numbers within Darwin rose 26% in 2024 (479 in 2023) – reflecting the huge effort of all clubs and volunteers to deliver Woolworths Cricket Blast Programs to over 165 participants, while NT Cricket also completed over 42 school programs (to date) in 2024.

A highlight was the McDonalds Under 9 competition which had a record ten teams, and for the first time ever, all seven Darwin and District Cricket Clubs were represented in this age group (Tracy Village and Southern Districts had multiple sides). 

The standard of cricket was also impressive with Junior cricketers' accomplishments celebrated at DXC Arena on Friday 6 September where Southern Districts Matthew St Clair was named the 2024 Darwin and Districts Cricket Competition Junior Cricketer of the Year.

St Clair not only performed on the field in both the Junior and Senior Competitions but also put his hand up to work with the Under 12 and Under 15 teams at his club.  

Jordi O’Toole from the PINT Cricket Club was awarded the Women’s Rising Star award and was presented with her award for making the 2024 Women’s Team of the Year at the age of just 13!

Waratah Cricket Club’s Ian Symonds was awarded the 2024 Junior Volunteer of the Year award for his contribution to cricket coaching the Waratah Under 15 Red team and overall contribution to the club helping with working-bees, umpiring and fundraisers.

The seven Junior Coordinators were thanked for their efforts throughout the season with Briony Gallagher (Palmerston), Michael Tregloan (PINT), Kevin Stephens (Darwin), Mel Nixon (Tracy Village), Tory St Clair (Southern Districts), Chris McCormick (Waratah) and Matthew Vaughen (Nightcliff) all receiving a token of appreciation.  

A full list of award winners can be found below; 

Junior Cricketer of the Year: Matthew St Clair (Southern Districts) 

Women’s Rising Star: Jordi O’Toole (PINT) 

Junior Volunteer of the Year: Ian Symonds (Waratah) 

Under 19 

Batting Average: Tahj Hill 241 runs @ 120.5 (Palmerston)

Batting Aggregate: Tahj Hill 241 runs (Palmerston)

Bowling Average: Matthew St Clair 15 wickets @ 10.27 (Southern Districts)

Bowling Aggregate: Matthew St Clair 15 wickets (Southern Districts)

Under 18 

Batting Average: Owen Ferguson 303 runs @ 101 (Palmerston)

Batting Aggregate: Owen Ferguson 303 runs (Palmerston)

Bowling Average: Tennyson Phillips 16 wickets @ 11.94 (PINT)

Bowling Aggregate: Tennyson Phillips 16 wickets (PINT)

Team of the Year: Owen Ferguson, Sam Menzies, Daejah North-Palmer, John Pelham, Tufail Rashid, Tennyson Phillips, Deepanshu Panwar, Michael Jessup, Benjamin Koefoed, Royce Phillips, Levi French and Matthew Barber. 

Under 15 Blue 

Batting Average: Rithun Ramanan 551 runs @ 85.17 (Waratah) 

Batting Aggregate: Rithun Ramanan 551 runs (Waratah) 

Bowling Average: Eli Hayward 19 wickets @ 4.74 (Southern Districts)  

Bowling Aggregate: Eli Hayward 19 wickets (Southern Districts) 

Team of the Year: Rithun Ramanan, Toby Anderson, Ty Jennings, Harvey McCormick, Angad Panwar, Tye Beer, Lucas Nixon, Eli Hayward, Myles Johnston, Tathira Wijegunarathna, Billy O'Toole and Jack Francis. 

Under 15 Red 

Batting Average: William Handford 444 runs @ 88.8 (Darwin)

Batting Aggregate: William Handford 444 runs (Darwin)

Bowling Average: Felix Botha 15 wickets @ 6.87 (Darwin)

Bowling Aggregate: Felix Botha 15 wickets (Darwin) and Cooper Langton 15 wickets (Southern Districts)

Team of the Year: William Handford, Flynn Allison, Joel Jimmy, Felix Botha, Micha John, Jett Latham, Hunter Danvers, Harper Munday, Peter Kalidonis, Matthew Gawthrope, Cooper Langton and Austin Robinson. 

Under 12 Blue 

Batting Average: Jack Dunkerton 359 runs @ 179.5 (Palmerston)

Batting Aggregate: Jack Dunkerton 359 runs @ 179.5 (Palmerston)

Bowling Average: Brody Ling 18 wickets @ 6.17 (Palmerston)

Bowling Aggregate: Brody Ling 18 wickets (Palmerston)

Team of the Year: Jack Dunkerton, Morrison Hayman, Liam Kitching, Harry Edwards, Haydon Burton, Thisen Perera, Lachlan Fogarty, Isaac Watson, Brody Ling, Lincoln Clarke, Jacob Nothnagl and Addison Gallagher.

Under 12 Red 

Team of the Year:  Roux Botha, Lachlan Salter, Hemaankh Saladi, Angad Saini, Harvey Gibson, William McKeown, Rishan Pansal, Povesh Krishanoorthy, James Irvine, Brodie Cameron and Juliet Johnson.