Peter Burge Medal

The Peter Burge Medal is awarded each season to the best and fairest First Grade cricketer in the Premier Grade Competition, as judged by the first-grade umpires.

The award is named in honour of Peter Burge, widely regarded as Queensland's finest home-grown batsman. Burge enjoyed a 15-year Sheffield Shield career, scoring 7627 runs at an average of 56.08, including 24 centuries, in 91 matches. He captained Queensland 29 times. He also played 42 Test matches for Australia, scoring 2290 runs at 38.16, including four centuries. 

Points are awarded on a 3-2-1 basis for each day of play during the XXXX GOLD District First-Grade Competition, and the winner is announced at the annual Grade Cricket Presentation Dinner.

Two Dolphins have won the Peter Burge Medal, Jeff Pfaff in 1996/97 and Brad Ipson in 2012/13. 

Jeff Pfaff – 1996/97

How Queensland Cricket Reported Jeff’s win:

Any notion that Gold Coast batsman Jeff Pfaff would not be the 1996/97 Peter Burge Medal winner would have been quickly dispelled when a video tape was shown just before the announcement of the winner.

On screen was the late W.E.P Harris, the University stalwart whose sudden passing during the Sheffield Shield Final had saddened all associated with the game in Queensland.

As part of the preparations for the Burge Medal, interviews were carried out in the weeks prior to the dinner with a range of XXXX Grade Cricket players and identities. When quizzed on his thoughts on the likely winner, Wep thought a while, tossed up a few candidates, before settling on “Pfaffy”.

Wep’s prediction proved spot-on and moments later, the hard-hitting Pfaff was on stage to accept the award from the man widely acclaimed as Queensland’s finest home-grown batsman, Peter Burge.

The 24-year-old Pfaff, who hit over 1000 runs in all form of Grade Cricket during the season, hopes his recognition will enable him to follow in the footsteps of the previous season’s winner, Bulls swing bowler Adam Dale who broke into the Australian one-day ranks this year.

Brad Ipson – 2012/13

How Queensland Cricket Reported Brad’s win:

Quality Gold Coast all-rounder Brad Ipson last night become just the second Dolphins player to win the Peter Burge Medal for the best player in the XXXX GOLD Premier Grade competition. The left-arm orthodox spinner and dangerous lower order bat polled 42 votes to finish three clear of Valley paceman Matthew Petrie. Another Valley player, all-rounder Andrew Gode was two votes behind in equal third alongside big-scoring Norths batsman Dom Michael.

Ipson did not poll a vote until receiving the maximum six votes in a one-dayer in Round 5 and repeated the effort in the next one-dayer in Round 8. He was consistent thereafter and held a five-vote lead over Gode going into the final round and held on for victory, despite both days of the Dolphins’ final round match being washed out. Ipson played 14 of a possible 19 matches and took an impressive 41 wickets at 17.49 while scoring 159 runs at 26.5.

He had a number of standout performances with the ball, headed by a club record 7-21 in the Round 8 one-dayer against Redlands in November, and 5-11 off 13 overs against Ipswich/Logan in another one-dayer. Ipson also took a combined 9-94 off 34 overs in a two-day game against Wynnum-Manly.

His victory was the first by a Gold Coast player since Jeff Pfaff won the Medal in 1996-97.

Ipson enjoyed three consecutive top 10 finishes from 2007-08 to 2009-10, finishing within one top-vote of the leaders on each occasion. The 32-year-old played one Ryobi Cup game for the XXXX GOLD Queensland Bulls this summer, scoring 33 and taking 0-48 against SA in Adelaide. He has played a total of nine one-dayers and two T20 games for his State. 

Gode and 1000-run Gold Coast opener Greg Moller held the ascendancy through much of the count, with Gode five votes clear after Round 14. However, he did not poll again while Moller missed a number of days following a recall to the Queensland Shield and one-day sides and polled just once more to finish on 36 votes. Despite his 1000-run season, Michael began the count surprisingly slowly but finished with a rush, collecting 26 votes in the second half of the season.

Peter Burge Medal Top 10:

42: Brad Ipson (Gold Coast)

39: Matt Petrie (Valley)

37: Andrew Gode (Valley)

37: Dom Michael (Northern Suburbs)

36: Greg Moller (Gold Coast)

33: Alecz Day (Sunshine Coast)

32: Glen Batticciotto (Toombul)

30: Michael Neser (Gold Coast)

28: Haydn Murray (Northern Suburbs)

28: Michael Brammer (South Brisbane)

28: Michael Herdman (Redlands)

28: Nick Fitzpatrick (Toombul)