SPBL Merit: A History

With the Get Branded SPBL Merit for the John Coxill Trophy only a day away, we look back at the history of the trophy.  Since John donated it in 1994 there have been 16 different winners, with Pete Farmer the king of the trophy after winning it in the inaugural year and then 5 times after that, including an unbeaten run between 2007 and 2009. James Grimston is the only other player to win it more than once, winning it consecutively in 2000 and 2001. 11 clubs have players who have won the trophy, St Georges having 4 winners, although three of them were Pete Farmer. They also had 9 runners-up, Tony Rhodes suffering that fate three times, including last season, but did get his hands on the trophy in 1996. Between 2001 and 2005 the competition was held as a finals day last 16 on a Sunday evening, with qualifying held on Friday evenings. But unfortunately since then, when we had entries of about 60 onwards, the numbers dwindled down to a disappointingly low 13 in 2011. It has picked up since then to about 28/30 but it would be great to get our number up over this mark this year.

So will it be a former winner lifting the trophy on Sunday, or will it be a new player. Or will it be a player from outside the league from the three invited clubs for the first time? We will find out Sunday!