THE Annual Harry Burden Memorial Lunch took place in the County Room at the Cooper Associates County Ground on Thursday, last week.

Attendees, including SCCC director of cricket, Andy Hurry, SCCC head coach, Jason Kerr, alongside members of the playing and coaching staff, enjoyed an traditional three-course Christmas Lunch.

After dessert, Roelof van der Merwe took part in a Q&A session.

The Harry Burden Award for Young Cricketer of the Year was won by James Rew, who had a stunning breakthrough season for the County in 2022.

James is currently playing in Australia so his award was collected on his behalf by his parents.

The Harry Burden Bursary, which is co-funded by Somerset County Sports, was won by Alice Bird.

Alice is an all rounder who attends the Winterstoke Hundred Sixth Form College in Weston-Super-Mare.

She has played boys’ and men’s  cricket for Weston-Super-Mare since the age of nine. Alice plays for the Somerset CCC girls U18s and the full Somerset CCC Women’s team, having played for Somerset age group teams since she was 11.

Alice made her full Somerset Women’s debut in 2020 aged just 14. She made her maiden men’s senior 50 this year for Weston-Super-Mare 3rd XI at just 16.

Alice captained the Weston-Super-Mare U15 boys team this year and won the player of the season award. She has been selected for the Western Storm Emerging Players’ Programme in 2023.

The awards were presented by the president of the Trust, Peter Anderson.

The Harry Burden Lunch is the main fundraising platform of the Tony Coles Charitable Trust, which provides grants to clubs and schools in order to help with the development of youth cricket.

Harry Burden was a very keen cricketer who died of leukemia just before his 8th birthday in 1995.

Since then, an annual event and awards presentation have been held in his memory.