We are thrilled to congratulate Stoke Newington Cricket Club's Duncan Holden for being awarded an MBE in the New Year's Honours List for Services to Sport in London.
Duncan, a servant of Stoke Newington CC for over 15 years, since he first took his sons to the Club over a decade and a half ago, is Stoke Newington's current co-ordinator of cricket and safeguarding officer, and has been a pioneer in bringing cricket back to Hackney Marshes, an area which has traditionally been known as the home of grassroots football.
Thanks to Duncan's passion to ensure cricket thrives in East London, the game is now flourishing on Hackney Marshes, as it is at Stoke Newington CC, who are widely recognised as one of London's fastest growing Clubs, with six men's sides regularly playing, a thriving women's section, and a junior boy's and girl's section which is hugely popular with over 200 young cricketers involved.
Duncan's dedication to ensuring cricket in the area prospers continues to bear fruit as Stoke Newington Cricket Club is now firmly on the map in East London with its youth sides regularly winning London championship titles and competing for county titles, however his most impressive legacy comes from the tireless work he did in liaising with the ECB, Middlesex Cricket, Hackney Council and the Football Foundation, while simultaneously negotiating with local environmental activists, to ensure the installation of three grass and five non-turf wickets, and the construction of a new pavilion and four-lane nets on the north end of the Marshes. In achieving this, Duncan has created a home for cricket in east London where before there was none.
This is not the first time that Duncan's efforts have been recognised, after he was also awarded the MCC's Community Champion Award in 2022, for his services to cricket in the area. To recognise this, Duncan was honoured with an invitation from the MCC to ring the five-minute bell at Lord's at the England versus India One Day International that year.
All at Middlesex Cricket would like to congratulate Duncan on being awarded an MBE, which is deserved recognition for the endless and tireless work he continues to deliver in the East London Middlesex borough of Hackney.
