GRANT JONES and Martin Kilner have been honoured by the Drakes League as recipients of this year’s Lady Sykes Candlesticks.
They are the most prestigious prize for current players, awarded for services to the game and the players’ clubs , and this year’s winners have been stalwart cricketers.
The 48-year-old Kilner is a one-club player who was second-team captain at Cumberworth in addition to managing their Under 17 team.
He qualified as a Level 2 coach and has previously coached Cumberworth junior teams at every age group from Under 9 through to the 17s.
He was first-team captain from 1994 to 2007, during which time Cumberworth won for Premier titles in the Huddersfield Central League and three Allsop Cup finals.
Kilner was Man of the Match in the 2001 final.
He was second-team captain during Cumberworth’s rise from Cedar Court Conference Two to Drakes Premiership Two in successive seasons, which included a Jedi Sports Championship Two title.
An opening bowler, he won the trophy for most wickets in the Central League Premier section in 1994, 1999 and 2009 – his win in 1994 was followed by Adrian Guy and Dale Winterbottom.
He was voted Cumberworth Player of the Year (for performances in open-age cricket) in both 1984 and 1985 but still managed to score 305 runs and take 36 wickets in 2015 (sixth leading wicket-taker in Drakes Premiership Two).
For several years he has also been a member of Cumberworth’s general committee and regularly mows the outfield for no reward.
Jones, 49, first played for Delph as a junior, along with his brothers Howard and Warren (their father, Ray, played for Delph’s first team at that time).
He graduated through to the senior teams, as a batting and bowling all-rounder, playing in the Saddleworth League’s Tanner Cup Final in 1986.
In 1988 he left Delph and played with distinction as an amateur for a couple of years with Micklehurst Cricket Club, winning the man of the match award in the 1990 Tanner Cup Final, against Delph!
He then moved on to Staley CC as club professional for two years, and then to Flowery Field for two years, also as pro.
He then went back to Micklehurst for a season, but in 1998 he returned to Delph, as an amateur, in what turned out to be Delph’s final year in the Saddleworth League.
In that year, he broke the League’s batting record for an amateur, scoring 1,375 runs in the season.
He helped Delph to promotion from Section B of the Drakes Huddersfield League in 1999, their first year in the league, winning the Clifford Sykes Cup that year for the highest number of catches, excluding any as a wicketkeeper.
Jones has played his cricket since then entirely in the Premiership and captained Delph from 2001 until 2015, leading his side to a Byrom Shield in 2003 and Sykes Cup in 2012.
In 2000 he decided to go back to keeping for Delph, a role he has carried out through to now.
He has been acknowledged as one of the best keepers in the league for many years and was instrumental in helping Delph to a memorable treble in 2016.
Grant also took up coaching with the junior section when his son, Nathan, started playing as an eight-year-old. Nathan has now graduated to the first team and proudly plays in the same team as his father.
Behind the scenes, Jones has worked tirelessly for Delph and is always one of the first to put up his hand to volunteer when work around the ground is required.
He also helps to organise social functions within the club along with his wife, Christine, who was club secretary for many years.
Thongsbridge first team have been voted Sporting Team of the Year and will receive the David Boulton Award.
