2025 - A year in review from Club President, Iain Dixon

As we head into 2026, here is the year in review with our 2025 awards night message from Meraloma Cricket Club President, Iain Dixon.

This is my first President’s welcome after taking the reins long held by Len Layton who retired from the cricket section presidency to take up a role on the Meraloma Club Executive. First of all, I would like to thank Len for his years of outstanding dedicated service to the cricket section. This has been a wonderful year for the cricket section and that success is built on the foundation of Len’s hard work over the last thirteen years.

After a challenging season in 2024, the Executive concluded that the membership needed some additional “help” to improve the overall standard of our cricket. To that end, Sam Noster was appointed as club coach, and he has proved a tremendous success. He started off with online training seminars and then transformed training into a structured session with both team-wide and individual coaching throughout each session. There is no doubt in my mind that the Meraloma Club now has the best training and support for its players in B.C., if not Western Canada.

The most tangible result of the year was the return of the first eleven to the top of the Elite Division. The 1s put together a tremendous 13-5 regular season to finish top of the league and qualify in first place for the playoffs. This past weekend they continued their run of success with wins in both the semi-final and the final to claim the overall league championship as well. Congratulations and thanks to Lee Edwards for all his hard work in captaining the side over the last few years. A tremendous accomplishment to get our club back where it belongs. Notable contributions from Jed Wiggins, who has won the Elite Division bowling with 41 wickets, top run scorer Andrew Rawnsley, and Kieran Adams, who grew into a genuine all-rounder this season.

The second eleven under Yash Khatwani had an up and down year and finished in the bottom half of the first division, avoiding relegation on the last day. The team was better than its performances but struggled to put it all together week in and week out. As always, part of the 2s role is to get players ready for the first team. This year they accomplished that goal by giving first opportunities to Simon Moloney and by uncovering the potential in Vir Khimji, who excelled for the 2s before being called up and excelling for the 1s, including a 98 in the semi final!

The thirds under the captaincy of Kari Turunen also had an up and down season. Yash Roy was the outstanding performer for the 3s in putting together a great season both with the bat and the gloves, but several heartbreaking losses meant that the 3s were unable to challenge for promotion.

Duncan Webb led the 4s this year and they were best known for having the highest average age of any of our teams. The old boys found their niche in Division 7 and had an enjoyable season, particularly after the games ended. The 5s were ably led by Warren Ackhurst and fulfilled their role of enjoying their cricket and getting as many players as possible games. Newcomer Yug Patel was a standout and was asked to play for the 1s by the end of the year.

The Meraloma Women had another successful season. For the first time the BCMCL provided regular games for the women and that helped with the growth of the team’s skills, along with the coaching provided by Jed Wiggins and Duncan Webb at Monday practices. The B.C. Women’s team featured eight Meraloma women, including home grown players Jazzy Oldham and Maren Couch. Both Belinda Williams and Mohini Kalra made their international debuts for Canada.

Our U17 team struggled with results, but each player made obvious improvements as the season went on. Mayank Sagare topped the batting, while Chirag Pant was the top bowler. We again struggled for numbers at the U14 level and were forced to combine with West Vancouver for games, but the players were enthusiastic and trained hard. The Kanga program was a success once again with thirty players out on the Connaught grass learning the game on Wednesday nights and games on Saturday mornings.

I would like to recognize to our dedicated captains, coaches and committee members who volunteer their valuable time to run the club, agonize over selections, harass members for dues, pay the bills, take the minutes, write the reports, send out the emails, make the trophies, argue with the league, and much more. I would like to offer special thanks to Pierre Pitout, who despite barely playing, took on the umpiring coordinator job and we went (almost) penalty free!

And finally, Lomas cricket continues to set the highest standard no matter who or where we play. Let us celebrate tonight all that is great about cricket and the Meraloma Club.

--Iain Dixon, President.