SKIPPER Robert Croft was named Glamorgan player of the year at the first club chairman's ball and awards evening at Sophia Gardens on Saturday.

Panteg's vastly improved seamer David Harrison was named young player of the year and batsman David Hemp took the Byron Denning Memorial Award for outstanding contribution to the club, voted by his fellow players.

Croft beat Australian opener Matthew Elliott, who finished top of the county championship and one-day batting averages, to the main award because of his astute captaincy and all-round displays.

The club had one of their most successful seasons under him, winning the Totesport League with three games to spare, gaining promotion to the County Championship First Division and reaching the semi-finals of the Twenty20 competition.

In addition, batsman Michael Powell and Harrison have been included in the England Cricket Academy this winter with Harrison's younger brother Adam on stand-by while Alex Wharf is in the England one-day side and Matthew Maynard has been named assistant England one-day coach.

And the club also won the Spirit of Cricket Award, voted by the first class umpires, for the fourth season running (no other county has yet won it).

As well as his leadership, Croft topped the county's first class bowling averages jointly with Harrison with 57 wickets apiece while he also contributed a championship batting average of 35.31 and scored a century and four half-centuries in the Totesport competition.

"I am very proud of the team and would award them nine out of ten for their performances last season," said Croft. "The only reason I wouldn't award ten is that I believe there is a lot more to come. And I'm proud our success was achieved with virtually a Welsh home-grown side (Aussies Elliott and Mike Kasprowicz apart). Not for us the quick fix of buying in players (a reference to the many EU qualified-players now on many county's books)."

Commenting on the Spirit of Cricket Award, Glamorgan chief executive Mike Fatkin said: "In many ways this is the award we are most proud of for it shows you can achieve success while maintaining high standards.

Special caps were awarded to many players, including former skippers Alan Jones and Steve James as well as Adrian Dale, who has retired and emigrating with his family to New Zealand.