BERKSHIRE will open their defence of the Unicorns Counties Championship with a home fixture against Cornwall at Wargrave CC on June 4-6, writes Dave Wright.

Wargrave, who hosted a one-day game last season, offered their ground after Henley had made it known they wanted to take a break from staging a three-dayer.

Their two other home fixtures are against Wiltshire at Falkland and Herefordshire at Finchampstead, while their away games will be versus Wales, Oxfordshire and Devon.

In the Unicorns Trophy, Berkshire are to face Devon at Henley and Cornwall at Wokingham, with their away group games taking them to Oxfordshire and Dorset.

Berkshire's traditional season opener against Wiltshire for the Marlborough Cup is to be played at North Maidenhead on April 16.

In a season where they achieved so much, Berkshire found it an extremely difficult to make a decision when it came to selecting their player of the year for 2016.

The shortlist was reduced to two, but club officials couldn't decide between wicket-keeper Stewart Davison and pace bowler Tom Nugent - and so agreed to make them joint winners of the Palmer Cup.

All-rounder Euan Woods took the Most Improved Player category, earning him the Eddie Pickford Cup, while batsman Jack Davies secured the Young Player of the Year prize.

The awards were presented at Berkshire's annual dinner held at the Henley club.

Two of the recipients were unable to be there, as Nugent is playing in Australia and Davies had school commitments. Both were represented by their fathers, Ian and Andrew.

A raffle was held during the presentation evening with proceeds going towards purchasing new Honours Boards which are to be erected in the indoor training facilities at Piggott School, Wargrave.

Director of Cricket Danny Hall said: "These boards will list our recently-capped players, Academy players who have graduated either to our 1st XI or first-class counties, and our minor county achievements.

"Our coaches all feel this will prove a real inspiration and incentive to our young players when they come to training."

In speeches at the dinner, Hall, skipper James Morris and club professional Chris Peploe all heaped praise on head coach Tom Lambert.

Hall said he was, without a doubt, the best coach in minor counties cricket.