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Colts U15 Report 2001

This season the Under 15's, played seven games out of a total of 14 scheduled games. The games played were a mix of Middlesex West Area League, Middlesex Cup and Middlesex Plate games. Some of the squad also played in 3 friendly colts games, and for the Ashford under 17 side, managed by Peter Davies. Of the seven cancelled games, four games were lost to the weather. Two games were not played because of Hampton Hill dropping out of the league. Finally one Middlesex cup game, against Hampton Wick Royal, was conceded to Ashford because they could not field a team. Of the 7 games played the under 15's won 3, and lost 4.

The team improved as the season progressed, their best performance was in the last competition, the Middlesex Plate, finishing in 2nd place. Ashford were unbeaten in this competition, winning 2 games, with one game conceded and two rained off. The winners, Hounslow won 4 games and lost 1. The game they lost was against Ashford! The final points tally was Hounslow 40 points and Ashford 34 (10 points are awarded for a win, and only 2 points for a rained off game!)

The under 15's had a small squad only had 12 players -David Blakemore, Stuart Brister (left soon after the start of the season), Michael D'Souza, Mark Fleckney, Zain Hussain, Harry Jenkins, Trevor Langworth, Ben Simper, Adam Smith, Andrew Stand, Jonathan Swain and Neil Treadwell.

Two under 13 boys, Matthew Adams and Sam Langworth played in a number of under 15 games. Both performed very creditably, Matthew Adams useful bowling resulted in 4 wickets.

The team and manager received valuable assistance and support from the following people. John Blakemore and Ron Simper for completing score book and Adrian Chessman, Paul Frost and Ron Simper who umpired under 15's games.

The highlights of the under 15's season. First the consistent batting performances put in by the two top order batsmen, Trevor Langworth and Adam Smith. Trevor batted consistently throughout the season, scoring runs in every game. Adam while not being as consistent put in a couple of big scores culminating with a brilliant century, in our last match of the season at Twickenham. The whole team's performance in the Middlesex Plate game, against Hounslow, a team we have always struggled to beat, Trevor Langworth hit the winning run off the last ball of the game. The first win of the season against Hampton Wick Royal, where following a batting collapse by the top order batsman, the lower middle order rallied and put sufficient runs on the scoreboard to allow the bowlers to bowl Hampton out. Mark Fleckney, Andrew Strand and Jonathan Swain put on 80 runs between them. Adam Smith and Trevor Langworth played 2 games for the West Middlesex representative side.

Under 15 colts made significant contributions to the clubs Saturday and Sunday teams. They played in all the Saturday and Sunday teams during the season. The colts were Mark Fleckney, Zain Hussain, Trevor Langworth, Ben Simper, Adam Smith, Andrew Strand and Jonathan Swain, 7 out of a squad of 11.

Trevor Langworth won the Batting award, Ben Simper the Bowling award and the Managers award went to Adam Smith.

John Swain (U15 Colts Manager)

Colts U13 Report 2001

Out of 17 completed games 9 were won and 8 lost. The team could have won more games if they had believed in themselves. Occasionally heads were down before we had even started.

After a few games Matthew Adams grew into the role of captaincy. It was good to hear him encouraging the team especially towards the end of the season. Players (especially the younger ones) react to positive words and the parents also have a role to play in this. As long as the players are trying to the best of their ability I do not believe anyone should complain. We must all encourage them to perform to their full capacity.

I am not always convinced that it is fair to provide the top scorer with the batting award. The winner of the batting award may be a middle order batsman who has not always faced the best bowlers. The same can apply to a bowler who does not bowl to batsmen higher up the order. However this year both awards went to batsmen and bowlers who fully justified their trophies.

The 3 players in contention for the bowling award were:

Paul Dobbs 14 wickets taken at an average of 11 runs, Simon Cook 15 wickets taken at an average of 11 runs and Matthew Adams.

Matthew Adams took 14 wickets at an average of 9 runs at a cost of only 2 runs per over. It should be noted that Matthew often opened the bowling or bowled at times when the opponents were scoring at a fast rate. Well done Matthew!

Special mention should go to Matthew Tippel. Matt bowled far less overs than the 3 contenders for the bowling award but still managed to take 11 wickets.

Through the season players were not always willing to open the batting and thanks go to Lee Cousens and Mark Thomson for being willing to open whenever required. Mark had a good season nearly scoring his first 50 with 47 not out and ended the season with an average of 15.

Matthew Adams started off badly but greatly improved as the season went on. Twice Matthew scored 50 and ended the season with an average of 22.

The batting award went to Sam Langworth who batted through 3 times, scoring 274 runs at an average of 25. When the innings did not go as planned the team often had to rely on Sam and he fully deserved this year’s award. Congratulations Sam!

Fielding was very up and down. One week the players looked as if they did not want to be out on the field yet at other times they were very enthusiastic. This area needs to be worked on and players must realise that with a little more effort in the field we could have had improved results. Todd Wotten gave 100% all season and should be congratulated for his effort. Lee Cousens and Simon Cook kept trying when other heads were down and Mark Thomson was very solid behind the stumps.

There were many contenders for the Manager's Player of the Year Award. A few players will be mentioned but it is a team game and all others, although not noted, played their part throughout the season.

There were many players who did not bat as high in the order as they would have liked. Special thanks should go to Mike Hawthorne for batting at number 10 or 11 every game without once complaining.

Todd Wotten – as stated previously Todd's effort in the field deserves a mention. Todd was an example to the rest of the team throughout the season and took some great catches.

Sam Langworth - for his overall contribution with both the bat and ball.

The Manager’s award however went to Scott Hammerton. Scott was unable to attend the presentation night due to illness and had not been well for about 5 months. Scott played in games when he should have been in bed and always put in a lot of effort especially with the bat.

I would like to end by saying thankyou to the following people:

Adrian Chessman – Without Adrian we would not have the Friday night training.

Steve Adams for his help every game with scoring and umpiring.

Paul Frost, Trevor Langworth, Adam Smith and Strang for their help on a regular basis and Debbie Cousens for attempting to score when there was no-one else available!

Finally thanks to Chris Evans who cajoled me through my first season. Things can only get better Chris!

Paul Cousens (U13 Colts Manager)

Colts U11 Report 2001

Ashford U11s ended up playing far fewer matches than normal. This was due to number of reasons; the weather, a lack of availability in August and a lack of my time being the main reasons.

In the Middlesex League against Twickenham, Hampton Wick Royal and Staines & Laleham, Ashford finished a very creditable 2^nd behind Twickenham who won all their matches. Ashford won three and lost two with the other match succumbing to the early season rain.

In the Middlesex Plate competition, we won one match against Hampton Wick Royal (walk over) while we lost to Twickenham and Hampton Hill.

In the Jim Warden trophy we handsomely beat Windsor while we lost to Valley End and Egham. The other fixtures were not played; Ottershaw (weather), Staines & Laleham and East Molesey (lack of time).

The seasons' highlights were Shaun Cousens' 64* against Twickenham, Graham Tew's 50* against Windsor and Alex Jackson's 45 against Valley End on the batting side. The bowlers also had their moments with both James Dadge and Alex Jackson taking four wickets in a match against Staines & Laleham and Hampton Wick Royal respectively.

Shaun Cousens and Alex Jackson were the most reliable batsmen while Alex Satterfield, Joe Lewis, Alex Jackson and James Dadge took most of the wickets.

Other useful batting contributions came from Graham Doggett, Alex Roberts, Louis Hudson, Robert Hitch, Shaun Smith, David Aylott, Philip Haynes and Joe Lewis. The bowlers also did their bit with Shaun Cousens, Graham Doggett, Graham Tew, Charlie Cottrell and Elliot Smith all taking wickets.

William Satterfield did most of the wicketkeeping and was, on the whole, reliable. Wicketkeeping at the U11 level is a very difficult task and William showed good progress during the season.

Shaun Cousens won the Batting award, Alex Satterfield the Bowling award and the All-round award went to Alex Jackson.