BEN Burkill picked up two awards at the Spenser Wilson Halifax League's annual prize presentation.

Cullingworth's skipper not only won the first teams' batting prize for the First Division with an average of 86.36, he also took the Ronald Wolfenden Batting Trophy for his aggregate of 1,209 runs.

Burkill, who was one of three players to top 1,000 runs (another was Mahmad Makda of Mount), also picked up the First Division trophy on behalf of his club, who have now been promoted for two years in succession.

Matthew Jordan (Great Horton Park Chapel) won the First Division bowling award with an average of 13.31, while Imran Mirza (Jer Lane) not only won the Premier Division wicketkeeping award with 30 dismissals (27 caught, three stumped) but also the Laurie Plumb Wicketkeeping Trophy for most victims.

Mitesh Mistry of Clayton shared the Ronald Wolfenden Bowling Trophy with Sajid Mahmood (Bridgeholme) for their 68 wickets.

At second-team level, there were prizes for Queensbury's Josh Dougall (batting, average 86.33), Upper Hopton's Asif Nawaz (bowling, average 6.07) and Great Horton Park Chapel's Joe Bavington (fielding, five marks).

In the Sunday League, Mount's Yahya Akudi won the bowling prize (average 7.31) for Division Three, while Thornton's Joe Marshall took the Division Two award with 9.22.

Other successful skippers included Michael Hustler (Jer Lane, T20 Trophy) and Craig Gardner (Upper Hopton), who picked up the Clay Trophy for the most points gained by a second team over the last six matches of the season.

There were also special awards, one of which went to Peter Taylor (Frederick Stallard Bowl), awarded by the league executive for services to the league.

Taylor, who has just retired as an official, was a key member of the league's executive committee for ten years, organising the Sunday League's fixtures, collating results, helping the Halifax Junior League, also running their under-11 and under-13 district sides as well as being an umpire.

Stones won the University of Huddersfield History & Heritage award, Greetland's Arnie Cleveland the Umpires' Association Sportsman of the Year Trophy, Bradley & Colnebridge the Roy Smith Club Sportsmanship Trophy and Keith Hodson (Bridgeholme) the Simon Lees Memorial Trophy.

Guests at The Venue in Barkisland included Yorkshire player Alex Lees, who presented the above trophy in honour of his dad, and Headingley coach Andrew Gale.

Lees said: "I probably took a bit of a backward step last season but I have the drive and determination to succeed."

Gale said: "Last year was challenging for the club but the lads have got their hunger back in early pre-season.

"There is always pressure in Yorkshire, whether you are a player or a coach, and we want to create our own history like Geoff Boycott and Michael Vaughan.

"But one thing that we have in Yorkshire is the league structure.

"Halifax, Huddersfield and Bradford is a real hotbed and Alex and myself went round the grounds to see the damage that the Boxing Day floods had done.

"It was devastating but you got back under way thanks to a lot of hard work and that meant a lot to us at Yorkshire."