Courtney Allen (right) collecting one of his many awards at the Manchester Cricket Association from Marcia Tai Chung, human resource manager at Windalco. - Richard Bryan

Courtney Allen, a member of Jamaica's victorious Under-19 one-day and league squads earlier this year, was the toast of the recent awards ceremony of Manchester Cricket Association (MCA), hosted at the Manchester Tennis Club.

First, he collected the Patrick Anderson Trophy for the South Stars team he captains, winners of the parish's major cricket league. The South Stars team has also earned national prominence, winning last year's National 20/20 championship, and were runners-up in the same competition earlier this year.

four major awards

Allen who captains the Man-chester High cricket team that reached both the Headley Cup and KO schoolboy finals, then collected two of the four major awards provided for his parish team's performance in the National Junior Cup.

Manchester won that competition, and in addition to being its captain, Allen won awards as the Most Valuable Player (MVP) and Most Disciplined Player. His Jamaica Under-19 and Manchester High team-mate Brian Clarke won the best batsman award, while Chris Gayle, another member of the Manchester High team, was adjudged the top bowler in this category.

Allen also received a special medal for being a member of the senior Manchester parish team that won the National semi-professional league, and reached the finals of both the National 20/20 and 50-over cricket finals.

With the unique distinction of scoring centuries for Jamaica in regional competition at the Under-15 and Under-19 levels, Allen said his primary goal was to now focus on making the transition to the country's senior squad.

"That's my goal. It is just for me to continue to improve on my batting and score a lot of runs." He also wants to land Manchester High a major schoolboy cricket title, before he graduates, next year.

According to Danny Senior, second vice president of the MCA as well as the senior team's manager, this year's function carried special regard because of the parish's overwhelming achievements in all facets of the game in both senior, junior and schoolboy categories. He believes the domestic competition was key to the achievements.

"Every time we have a domestic league, we do well (in national competitions) but we didn't have one for a few years and it showed. This year we started back the league and we had our best year. We actually wanted to win all the competitions but we can't complain as we were runners-up in two competitions and a number of our players went to the trials this year. Things are really looking up for us."

Ian Forbes whose company, Sherwin Williams (Ja), employs four Manchester cricketers, was guest speaker. Other keynote speakers were Jamaica Cricket Association president Paul Campbell and head of MCA, Pat Anderson.