Somerset County Cricket Club have been so overwhelmed by standard of the nominations for the Queen's Golden Jubilee Award medals that they have decided to increase the number that are going to be presented.

Originally it was planned to present just twelve of the medals to the most deserving individuals in Somerset who have dedicated their time in a voluntary capacity to one cricket club.

Numerous nominations for the medals were received by Somerset Cricket Development Officer Andrew Moulding, but when it came down to deciding who the lucky recipients were going to be it proved to be an impossible task.

Andrew Moulding told me: "The club has had a fantastic response to the Queen's Golden Jubilee Award, and the level of nominations has been so impressive that it has been impossible to sort out the twelve most deserving cases."

Mr Moulding continued: "They have all been fantastic applications, for instance one person who was nominated had given sixty six years of service to one club, fifty of which he had been on the committee. In his years with the club he had been a player, secretary, groundsman and umpire. That's an impressive record, and there are any number that are just as impressive in their own ways."

The Cricket Development Officer told me: "After discussion it has now been decided to increase the number of Queen's Golden Jubilee Award medals from twelve to fifty, and even then it will still be a difficult choice to make!"

The fifty medals will be produced locally and will be based upon a combination of the ideas put forward by the pupils of Year 9E at Heathfield School in Taunton, who were given the design of the medal as part of a project that they were undertaking with their teacher Mary Harding.

The youngsters from Heathfield School who were involved in the project will be invited along to the County Ground on May 12th when the Queen's Golden Jubilee Award medals will be presented.

Somerset Chief Executive Peter Anderson told me: "The standard was so high that in the end we decided to present fifty medals, which makes symmetrical sense, one for each year of the Queen's reign."

© SOMERSET