Awards

There are two awards in the Surrey Cryptics Cricket Club – the Trophy and Pink & Black striped Thai silk jackets (for Cryptic ‘Legends’).

The Trophy has roots in the 1980s but has only been regularly awarded at annual club Dinners since the mid 1990s. It is awarded by the captain to his chosen ‘Man of the Year’ who is not necessarily the player of the year, in recognition of  commitment, contribution, achievement or a combination of the above. It helps not to have won it previously. Needless to say, there are no rules as such, but convention has it that: 1. You have to attend the Dinner to have a chance of winning it and 2. The skipper can not award it to himself despite, given the administrative workload of the job, invariably being the most deserving.

Pink & Black Jackets were introduced in 2007 when a behind the scenes conspiracy led to the procurement from Bangkok of one jacket for Richard Seeckts as thanks for his first stint as skipper 1996-2006. Feeling somewhat exposed as the only man wearing such a garish garment on tours and at Dinners, and appreciating that others too had made enormous contributions to the Cryptics, four more jackets were awarded in the years that followed.

Supply was then interrupted by the demise of our man in Bangkok, but restored in 2017 after a chance meeting at a Chennai Test Match opened a new Thai tailor’s door. The threshold to qualification for a jacket may have been lowered but the inclusiveness of promoting more Cryptics to ‘Legend’ status has been welcomed by all.

Cryptic ‘Legend’ Jackets

Scottie – the only man to be awarded both on the same night – Annual Dinner 2019

(Trophy for 2018 season and Jacket at Dinner in 2019)