Courtesy of Lee Monk, we have a comprehensive review of the Geoff Newman Trophy.
The first annual Geoff Newman Trophy came to head this week with Maldon winning a hard-fought final against a strong Great Waltham side by 31 runs.
The T20 tournament kicked off in June with local teams invited to take part in the tournament, five teams took up the challenge.
Great Totham
The Don’s first match was against local rivals Great Totham. Great Totham won the toss and decided to bat and put together a number of useful partnerships throughout their innings to reach a respectable total of 150/5 with Maldon’s 8 bowlers on the day rarely challenging the Great Tothambatting lineup. In response, the Don’s made a disaster start, with Totham’s opening bowler taking out our top 5 and returning figures of 5-16. The Don’s finished their innings 139/9 with Matt Coppen (23 not out) and Chris Harris (47 not out) leading a spirited come back towards the end of our innings but fell 11 runs short of what would have been a remarkable comeback.
Boreham and Roxwell
Onto Boreham and Roxwell at the farm for the next fixture, the Don’s lost the toss again and were put into bat. With the Totham game firmly behind us, our u18s put in some brilliant performances to lead us to a comprehensive 62 run victory. Luke Reeve started the innings with great intent scoring 30 retired and was backed up by Matt Coppen (30 retired) Mackenzie Jones (31 retired) to make 139/3. Will Hayes (2-21), Jamie Brown (2-8) and Fin Jones (1-5) returned excellent bowling figures to give us victory, limiting Boreham to 77 all out.
Great Waltham
The Don’s arrived at Great Waltham needing a victory to mean a win against Terling would secure their place in the final. The Don’s won the toss and decided to bat on a good wicket. Great Waltham bowled well at the top of the innings and made it difficult for the Don’s to score. c top scored from the top of the innings with 24 and Jamie Brown, Jody Brown, Lee Monk and Ross Walpole all chipped in to bring the Dons to a below par 94/7. In response, Callum Figg (3-34) put in a good performance and got early wickets to put the pressure on but in the end the total proved comfortable for Great Waltham to chase down, with them comfortably winning the match in the 13th over with 6 wickets to spare.
Terling
Having won one and lost two, the Don’s needed a win and results to go in our favour to reach the final. Playing at the prom for the first time this year, the Don’s won the toss and decided to bowl. Ben Gibbon’s lead a brilliant team performance in to limit Terling to 107 all out with Jack Bowen (2-11) Callum Figg (1-16) Jody Brown (2-33) Reece Bawden (2-12) Max Bryant (2-14) and Peter Rose (1-0) all tacking wickets. In response, opening duo Matt Shinn (28) and Harry Grant (36 not out) quickly took the game away from Terling and the Dons completed a comfortable victory by 5 wickets. The win left Maldon hoping for a miracle to reach the final, which came when Statto confirmed that we had reached the final on net run rate by a narrow 0.158206.
Final vs Great Waltham
After narrowly scraping through, the Don’s faced Great Waltham in the final who comfortably won all their group stage matches. Great Waltham comprehensively beat the Dons on route to the final, so an exciting final was on the cards and both teams didn’t disappoint.
In overcast conditions, Great Waltham won the toss and decided to bowl. After an early wicket, the Don’s made a great start, largely thanks to U14 Angus Beames (17 off 20). Max Bryant came in at 3 and played a classy anchor innings, scoring 51 of 49 which included some excellent shots including a reverse sweep for 4.
After Matt Coppen was trapped lbw by a quicker ball on his toe in front of middle for 2, the middle order bats of Harry Grant (36 not out off 25) and Reece Bawden (13 off 7) upped the rate brilliantly and ensured we had a competitive total to defend of 139/5, our third score of 139 of the tournament. Using the momentum at the end of our innings, the Don’s came out and made a brilliant start in the field, with openers Fin Jones (3-16) and Jody Brown (2-16) getting an opening bat each for 0 and getting us off to the perfect start. Fin continued to bowl brilliantly in the fielding restrictions, with Harry Grant (3-25) coming in first change to get vital wickets to put the Don’s in a great position to win the match.
With the game approaching the conclusion, Great Waltham still had an outside chance with their number 6 approaching 50, but a reliable spell from Jack Bowen, 2 brilliant catches from behind the stumps from Ross Walpole and then Reece Bawden (2-16) getting the final wicket led to celebrations and a well-deserved 31 run win for the Dons.
Joe Figg led the trophy presentation before handing over to Michael and Dave Newman who shared some memories of Geoff and how pleased he would have been to have had a trophy named in his honour (although they we’re not sure how well the t20 format would have gone down!).
Well done to all Dons who played in the tournament. There were some excellent contributions throughout the club and thanks to Matt Shinn, Peter Rose, Will Hayes, Callum Figg, Chris Harris, Luke Sanders, Jamie Brown and Luke Reeve who all played a part in getting the Dons to the final.
Special mention and thanks to Stuart Coker for arranging the tournament.
We’re looking forward to defending our title next year already!
Top run scorers:
Max Bryant – 77
Harry Grant – 72
Matt Coppen – 57
Top wicket takers:
Jody Brown – 7
Fin Jones – 5
Callum Figg, Max Bryant, Reece Bawden – 4
Maldon Cricket Club 
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