Wellington internationals Matthew Bell and Anna O'Leary walked off with the region's cricketer of the year awards presented tonight.

In terms of cricketing records, Bell enjoyed an historic season.

Appointed with the extra responsibility of captaining the Wellington Firebirds, Bell and his team achieved Wellington's first win of the Shell Trophy in 11 years and also successfully defended the Shell Super Max trophy.

Individually, Bell produced some astounding performances scoring 1092 runs, the most by any New Zealand player in the 2000/01 first-class season. This rounded off a season in which he captained Wellington for the first time and scored five Trophy centuries and three half centuries to become their leading run scorer.

In his return to the CLEAR Black Caps, Bell again performed with distinction scoring 248 runs at an average of 49.60, scoring his maiden Test century against Pakistan in the final Test of the series.

O'Leary's cricketing career continued to move for strength to strength, both on the domestic scene, and as a member of the CricInfo Women's World Cup-winning CLEAR White Ferns.

At a time when the country's cricketing interests were focused on an in-form women's team, O'Leary provided steady leadership at the top order. O'Leary finished the tournament with 308 runs with a highest score of 91 not out. Her average of 51.33 was the fifth highest at the tournament, and was bettered by only one other New Zealander player, captain Emily Drumm.

For his captaincy efforts, Bell also picked up the Norwood award for most enterprising captaincy while O'Leary won the award for most improved women's batsman.

Another international player, James Franklin won the Norwood award for men's young cricketer of the year while the women's award went to Amanda Cooper. Cooper also won the Marjorie Sweetman Memorial Trophy for most wickets, 32, in women's cricket.

The men's most improved batsman went to Richard Jones, a former Auckland batsman who, in his first season with Wellington, scored three centuries in his last four Shell Trophy matches.

Iain O'Brien and Anna Corbin won the respective men's and women's most improved bowlers awards.

Other Norwood Awards presented were:

Club aggregate award: Eastern Suburbs.

Norwood championship (club with highest average points per team): Onslow.

Most improved all-rounder: Matthew Walker.

Most improved fielder: Chris Nevin.

Stokes Valley won the Pearce Cup for taking out the intercity senior men's competition while North City took out the Hazlett Trophy. North City also won the Mike Smith Cup for winning the under-23 colts competition. The club colts under-17 competition went to Stokes Valley.

In the women's competition Taita won the combined one-day Cup and the Joy Lamason Cup for the winning senior reserve team when to Eastern Suburbs.

A feature of the evening was the presentation to former New Zealand left-arm spin bowler Evan Gray of the Bartercard Award for men's club cricketer of the year. Playing for Wellington Collegians he accumulated most points during the summer for his bowling and batting feats. Gray also won the Ron Murray Cup for most wickets in senior cricket with 69.

The women's award went to Fiona Stickney of the Hutt Districts club.

The groundsman of the year award, nominated by club captains for the most consistent pitches produced during the year, went to Andrew Levesque at Alex Moore Park, the home of the Johnsonville Cricket Club.

Stephen Mather of Eastern Suburbs won the Arthur Dick Cup for most runs in the senior competition after scoring 731 runs while Stickney's 625 was the most by a women's batsman.

The Sir Walter Nash Trophy for the most promising Hutt Valley player under 26 years went to Nevin of Hutt District while the A J Rohrs Memorial Trophy for the most promising under-20 Hutt player went to Darren Cudby of Hutt District.

Other Hutt Valley awards were:

J Atkin Salver for best bowling performance by a Hutt Valley player went to Hutt District bowler Charlie Shreck who took 12-43 against Petone-Riverside in club play.

The May Cup for the best batting performance by any Hutt Player went to Stokes Valley's Jones for his 188 for Wellington against Otago in the Shell Trophy competition.

The Sam Platt Cup for the most outstanding performance in any match by a Hutt Valley player went to Stephen Gellatley for his 139 not out against University in the Pearce Cup competition.

Stokes Valley won the Hutt Valley aggregate club championship while Hutt District won the Hutt Valley average club championship.

The Hutt Valley cricketer of the year award went to Shreck for accumulating most points in the intercity championship.

Other competition winners were:

Hutt Valley 4C Division 2, Petone-Riverside; Hutt Valley 4C Division 1, UH United Maroon; Hutt Valley 4B, Te Aroha; Hutt Valley 4A, Petone-Riverside; Wellington 4B, Wellington Collegians; Wellington 4A, Onslow 'A'; Wellington 3B, Karori 'A'; Wellington 3A, Tawa; Wellington 2C, Onslow; Hutt Valley 2B, Naenae Old Boys; One-Day Champions, SC & SE Cole Shield, Naenae/Hutt Districts; Wellington 2B, Eastern Suburbs A; Hutt Valley 2A, Hutt Districts; One-Day Champions, P J Ross Shield, Hutt Districts; Wellington 2A, Indian Sports; Intercity Senior Reserve Men, Eastern Suburbs.

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