Association of Cricket Officials Issue 32 | Page 23

Clarkson Makes History

Scorer Michael Clarkson was recently presented with a prestigious award at the West of Scotland Association of Cricket Officials ( WoSACO ) annual dinner .
The 44 year old , who scores for Uddingston CC in the Western Union Premier Division , was presented with the WM Mann Award for 2018 .
Receiving the trophy from Willie Donald , President-Elect of Cricket Scotland , Michael is the first scorer to receive the trophy in its 33-year history .
The first recipient was Rab Ellis of Kilmarnock , Ayr and Scotland in 1986 , and there have been some notable winners since . These include Andy Little and Jack Kennedy , both former Presidents of Cricket Scotland , as well as the entire Scotland squad for its exploits in the 1999 World Cup .
Commenting on the reasons behind the award , Eric Young , Chairman of WoSACO explained : ‘ The WM Mann Award is made annually to an individual , club or organisation who has distinguished themselves in the previous year , and it was felt that Michael ’ s perseverance and determination to attain his Level 3 be rewarded in some way by his peers .’
Michael has been scoring for almost 30 years , starting as a schoolboy , and has subsequently scored for a number of clubs including Allan Glen ’ s , Stirling County , Weirs , and now Uddingston . In 2006 , Michael became part of the Cricket Scotland National Scoring Panel , and in 2009 , he was nominated to the now defunct ICC European Scoring Panel . He first scored for a senior Scotland team in 2010 , scoring for Scotland Women .
The following year , he joined a number of other Scottish scorers at the World Under-19 Qualifiers in Ireland , scoring for the USA . He has also made two appearances – in 2012 and 2014 – scoring for Scotland Women in their European Championships .
In May 2013 , Michael scored his first full Scotland game against Hampshire in Southampton , and scored for the Netherlands in the Scottish leg of the T20 World Cup Qualifying competition in 2015 .
His First Class debut came in 2016 at Ayr when Scotland played the United Arab Emirates in the Intercontinental Cup , and in 2017 , he made his ODI debut when Scotland played Zimbabwe in Edinburgh .
Michael was awarded his ECB ACO Level 3 accreditation in November last year .
Commenting on the award , George Burns , who represents scorers on the Cricket Scotland Domestic Officials Committee , said : ‘ I would like to warmly congratulate Michael on his hard-earned and much deserved award . As well as being a personal accolade for Michael , this recognition can only help in raising the profile of scorers in the West of Scotland , and indeed Scotland as a whole . It is an unfortunate fact of life , but scorers are at times too easily overlooked when it comes to recognising the valuable contribution that they make to our sport .’
Willie Donald , President-Elect of Cricket Scotland , presents the WM Mann Award to Michael Clarkson , the first time a scorer has won the award .
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