President's 2026 Awards Night Message
It is with great pleasure that I welcome you to the 38th year of Meraloma Cricket and our 2026 Awards Night.
At the conclusion of another cricket season we can reflect on a year in which the club got stronger as a community and expanded (we added a t20 team) even if our results were not quite what we hoped for.
The 1s under Lee Edwards put together another 13-win season but due to a consolidation of top players at the top teams that was only good enough for a 3rd place finish. They won their semi-final against second place Newton Surrey Champions but were unable to get past a difficult Surrey United team and had to settle for runners up this year. As BC Champions from last season the 1s travelled to Manitoba for the Western John Ross Robertson tournament which they won, adding more silverware to the Loma trophy cabinet.
Damian Herft took over the captaincy of the second eleven from Toronto bound Yash Khatwani and hopes were high for an improved season. Unfortunately, the team once again struggled, and were relegated. Next year will be a big opportunity for the 2s to excel and get themselves back up to the 1st division.
Simon Roche took over the thirds captaincy from Kari Turunen and the 3s had what can best be described as an inconsistent season where they beat the league leaders but couldn’t consistently beat the weaker teams. Tony Long was outstanding with the ball grabbing 24 wickets.
Duncan Webb continued with his leadership of the 4s this year and they posted a solid 10-6 record to be just outside the promotion places. Vikram Chib and his 25 wickets was the outstanding contributor with the ball while the evergreen Stuart Grills led the batting, ably supported by the also ageless Webb.
The 5s had an interesting year, including using no less than 6 different captains. Although they were relegated in the end the 5s did post the second highest total of any team in the club with a massive 273 at Lower Brockton in their final game.
This year was the first time the club has entered the early morning t20 division and thanks to the efforts of Nuheen Khan it was a huge success. Having an early morning t20 team enabled the club to offer more games to more players than ever before.
The Meraloma Women had another successful season. Matches were provided by LMS, the o40s league and the BCMCL. Coaching was by Jed Wiggins and Duncan Webb at Monday practices. Maren Couch played for Canada U19 on several tours this summer and the BC Women’s team again was predominantly Meraloma women.
Our junior program featured more than 50 kids in Kanga, U14 and U17. The U17 team coached by Jack Harris and captained by Mayank Sagare finished just outside the playoff spots with a 7-6 record. Several U17s had games with the 5s this season as we continue with our commitment to promoting our home grown players into the adult competition.
Throughout the season Sam Noster worked incredibly hard as the club coach. Sam has done wonders with our training sessions and in helping individual players reach their full potential. Unfortunately, has decided his life needs some re-balancing (Hello Georgie) and will be stepping away from the coaching role next season. He will be sorely missed.
I would also like to thank this year’s billets for their efforts. We probably didn’t see the best of Jack Harris on the field, but he was a wonderful presence around the club and will be missed. Ethan Campbell and Jed Wiggins came back for their second seasons and are unequivocally two of the best billets we have ever had. Great players but even better people and club men. Both will be sorely missed.
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, simply; Thank you.
And finally, it is the spirit of Loma cricket that continues to set the highest standard no matter where or who we play. Let us celebrate tonight all that is great about cricket and the Meraloma Club.
--Iain Dixon, President.