Foxes are Mercury's Team of the Year!

Date: Friday 20 January 2012

Leicestershire CCC won the Team of the Year award at the Leicester Mercury Sports Awards evening last night.

The ceremony, which was held at Leicester Tigers’ Welford Road ground, saw the county’s top teams and individuals honoured and the Foxes were recognised for being Friends Life t20 Champions.

The team beat off stiff competition from Coalville Town FC and Leicester Ladies Hockey Club, who both enjoyed highly successful seasons of their own.

Winning the trophy was a real team effort from the Foxes. There was a great spirit and belief in the camp and everybody enjoyed each other’s success.

Every individual stuck their hand up to win a game when required, like Will Jefferson’s brilliant hitting in the super over in the semi-final against Lancashire Lightning.

Josh Cobb delivered a crucial spell of 4-22 against Somerset, Paul Nixon’s catch in the final will live long in the memory and the team’s sheer desire to sign their colleague off with a trophy was a joy to watch.

A number of Leicestershire players and officials attended the awards and Chief Executive Mike Siddall said: "We're absolutely delighted that the team's performance in winning the friends Life t20 Trophy for a record third time has been recognised with the Leicester Mercury Team of the Year Award for 2011. The success throughout the competition was based on a team ethic with every member of the squad making a valuable contribution."

Leicestershire’s talented young batsman Shiv Thakor was commended in the Young Sportsman category alongside Raphell Thomas-Edwards.

The teenager became the first Leicestershire-born player to make a century on first-class debut in 2011 and he helped to break Leicestershire’s record partnership for the fourth wicket alongside James Taylor. Leicester Tigers’ fly-half George Ford won the award after having an outstanding breakthrough campaign.

Snooker star Mark Selby and talented athlete Gemma Steel scooped the Sportsman and Sportswoman of the Year awards respectively and the evening was a great success.

Leicester Mercury's acting editor Richard Bettsworth said: "Once again, we have so much to celebrate about the brilliant accomplishments of our sportsmen and women in Leicestershire during 2011. The judges had an incredibly difficult task in selecting winners from so many outstanding nominees."