2003 was a difficult season for Ashford’s under seventeen colts. Starting the season with only six colts in the under seventeen-age group. Adam Smith, Trevor Langworth, Ben Simper, Jonathan Swain, Zain Hussain and Andrew Strand. This was not a big enough squad to be competitive against the other teams in the West Middlesex under seventeen league. In order to get teams out for the under 17 games, colts from the under 15’s, 13’s and under 11’s turned out on a regular basis. This commitment from the younger colts made under 17 cricket possible during the season. The colts from the younger age groups were; Mark Thompson, who also kept wicket in all the games played, Amundeep Gill, Bilal Khan, Ian Antonio, Simon Cook, Lee Cousens, Shaun Cousens, Elliot Smith and Shaun Smith. I believe that these colts will benefit from the experience; they certainly displayed tremendous character and skill against some very strong teams. The following under seventeen colts, Adam Smith, Trevor Langworth, Zain Hussain, Ben Simper and Jonathan Swain all played virtually every weekend for Ashford’s weekend teams. Between them they played in all four Saturday teams and the two Sunday teams, a considerable commitment from just five colts.

The under 17’s had 6 games, playing 5, one game against Hampton Wick Royal, was conceded by them. We lost all 5 games, but only lost the game against Indian Gymkhana by 12 runs and had a close game against Wycombe House. Both these games were winnable, but the team gave away too many extras, especially against Indian Gymkhana (34), which denied a possible win.

No colt’s manager can cope on his or her own, help is required. I would like to thank all the parents for transporting the boys too and from games. Ron and Daniel Simper provided invaluable help with scoring and helping with the umpiring of games.

The awards for the 2003 season. The easiest award was the batting award, one player, outscored the rest of the team by some margin, with a total of 141 runs at an average of 28; the batting award is to the team’s captain, Adam Smith.

Bowling was not easy, against some very strong batting line-ups. No one bowler stood out as a wicket taker, the wickets were shared out by between 5 main bowlers, Ben Simper, Zain Hussain, Adam Smith, Lee Cousens and Trevor Langworth. This season the bowling award is based on quality not quantity. One of those 5 bowlers consistently bowled very well, beating some very good batsman time after time, he should have taken a bucket full of wickets. The bowling ward is presented to Trevor Langworth, for consistent and hostile bowling in all the games he played.

The last award is the Managers award. I mentioned earlier that we only had 6 under 17’s available during season. Without the under 11, 13 and 15 colts we would not have had any under 17 games. In order to recognize the commitment made by these boys, I am awarding the managers award to one of them. If possible I would have liked to give each of them an award, they certainly deserve one. The award goes to an under 15 colt who played in 3 of the games, his concentration and skill when fielding is an example to the rest of the team, he also had a very fine spell of bowling in the game in which we were narrowly defeated by Indian Gymkhana, his figures were 4 overs for 12 runs taking one wicket, he also held a catch in that game. The managers under 17 award for 2003 is to Lee Cousens.

John Swain U17s Manager

Colts U15 Report 2003

The Season

Out of 13 games 5 were won and 7 lost with one game rained off. Twenty four players were used and nearly all of them played at least 6 games. Whilst it was good to see so many boys playing games, the downside of playing twenty four different players is that the strongest team is not always picked. This causes Ashford to lose more games than they deserve. Other clubs tended to pick their best eleven and not share the games around. Bearing this in mind I felt it was a good season overall.

Scott Hammerton was captain for the year. The team spirit was very good with everyone supporting each other. Much of this was down to Scott coordinating in a professional way and with the players responding well.

Fielding

The fielding was excellent throughout the season. Todd Wotten and Paul Dobbs took some great catches. Ian Antonio, Lee Cousens, Matt Tippell and Mike Hawthorne fielded with great enthusiasm and Mark Thomson was solid behind the stumps. The greatest improvement was seen in Jamie Oughton, although he was not alone, as many of the younger players improved throughout the season.

Batting

There were good contributions from many players including, Scott Hammerton, Paul Dobbs, Paul Edwards, Ian Antonio, Luke Cotterill, and Todd Wotten. Over the season there were good totals from Chris McMahon (64), Amadeep Gill (74) and Lee Cousens (83).

The batting award was between two players, Simon Cook and Mark Thomson. Both players scored their highest runs against Richmond when the team scored 172. Simon was runner up for the award, with 178 runs at an average of 22, including the Richmond game where he scored 77.

In the same game against Richmond, this year’s winner Mark Thomson scored 60 runs. Over the season, Mark scored 195 also at an average of 22. Mark was very consistent, often opening the batting and leading by example.

Bowling

The wickets were very spread around this year. Nearly all the players bowled with 15 players taking wickets. Players taking 4 wickets or more included Zain Qazilbash, Simon Cook, Paul Dobbs and Ian Antonio with 4, Lee Cousens and Scott Hammerton with 5 and Adam Hunt with 7.

The two 2 bowlers with the highest number of wickets, Bilal Khan and Amadeep Gill, were both in their first season at Ashford C.C. They generally opened the bowling and deserve extra praise for being at the top of the bowling averages, as they mainly bowled at the oppositions’ top batsmen.

Bilal was the 2^nd highest wicket taker with 8 wickets at an average of 19.4 .

The winner of this year’s bowling award goes to Amadeep who took 9 wickets at an average of 13.1 . Not only are these figures very good, but runs were given away at only 3.3 per over. Amadeep had by far the best figures in the team.

Keith Cook award

As most of you will be aware, Simon Cook’s father, Keith, passed away this year. Keith was a great supporter of Simon and attended every game possible. Keith appreciated good cricket and enjoyed it when players showed promise and skill. One of the things that Keith would regularly speak to me about was the behaviour and effort made by the players.

In honour of Keith, and with Simon’s mother Christine’s agreement, Ashford C.C. presented a ‘Keith Cook award’ this year. The club were looking for a player who not only shone in bowling and batting averages, but also concentrated at all times in matches and training. Bilal Khan fitted this position and also willingly helped out with boundary markers at games, encouraged players, showed respect to the opposition and generally helped to make this team the most professional and best behaved team I have taken.

Bilal had a great season and thoroughly deserved this award.

Manager’s player of the year

For me there was only one winner this year. For obvious reasons it has not been an easy year for Simon, yet when he was able to play he bowled with his usual aggression, fielded extremely well and scored 178 runs, coming second in the averages. This was a great effort by Simon.

Thankyou

I would say thank you to Sue Dobbs and Icky Gill for helping with scoring. A huge thank you to Kevin Antonio for his help every Friday with training and each game with scoring and umpiring.

Paul Cousens Managers, Under 15s

Colts U13 Report 2003

It would be fair to say that the under 13s enjoyed mixed fortunes this season, with 3 wins coming from their 11 matches in the League, Cup and Plate competitions. Having said that, though, the final figures were better than could reasonably have been expected after the side had lost their opening five matches back in May.

We could have been forgiven then for thinking that we were heading for a long hard summer of defeats. But my overall impression at the end of the season was a positive one – the side had developed and become stronger during the year so that by the end it was great to see them encouraging each other and clearly enjoying their cricket.

Although we may not have had the success of some other stronger local sides, I can honestly say that I thought our side showed a better team spirit than anyone we played against during the year. And this is a great achievement for a group of boys most of whom play little or no cricket at school.

As those parents who have been down and watched the boys practise on Friday evenings will know, it can be difficult to work on improving specific techniques or strategies with so many kids running around needing supervision. But all the boys who played in the under 13s this year worked hard and it was pleasing to see them definitely improving as the season progressed, both in their own game and in their attitude, their knowledge of the game of cricket and their determination to do well for each other.

We saw in the year that we have a number of boys in the under 13s with a natural talent for the game, and I hope as they grow and mature over the next couple of years they will take up the many opportunities that the club offers to play in the senior sides on Saturdays and Sundays.

We had a fairly small squad to work with this year, so despite the obvious dominance of a few of the regulars each game required a real team effort. Although I don’t want to single people out for praise too much, I should mention a few individual performances that stood out in the year. Alex Roberts’ fine innings of 41 at Indian Gymkhana which set up a tight victory; Shaun Cousens’ excellent undefeated knocks of 61 against Twickenham and 44 at Wycombe House when all about him were falling come to mind.

But for me, the highlight of the season was the victory at Hampton Hill. It was our first of the season and was all the more remarkable for being achieved with only 9 men! First the batting: what for me was the best innings of the season produced by our captain, Alex Jackson, who led the side admirably throughout the year, and who in this match hit 38 and batted for the majority of his innings with the tail. He managed the strike superbly and showed maturity far beyond his years. Then the bowling: the best figures recorded in the year of 4-13 by Jack Brown, who bowled with great discipline and was backed up by some lively fielding and excellent catching.

But now I will move onto the awards for the year:

First the batting. Despite a number of good innings from various members of the team – Alex Jackson, Alex Roberts, Graham Tew, Matt Dodds – there was only even one real candidate for the batting award. His name has already been mentioned, and I’m sure we will hear a lot more of him in the years to come. Clearly one of the best prospects this club has had in a long time, with 238 runs averaging nearly 40, the batting award goes to Shaun Cousens.

Next the bowling. A number of candidates here: Alex Jackson, who always bowled with spirit and a good pace for his age; Graham Doggett; James Dadge and latterly Graham Tew, who seemed to have an uncanny knack of breaking partnerships at opportune times. But with 14 wickets at an average of 12, the bowling award goes to Jack Brown.

We have two more awards. For his general leadership, his contributions with bat and ball, and his cool head under pressure, Kevin and I have chosen to give our Managers’ Award to Alex Jackson.

And finally an award for a player who in my mind has improved most this year. Sometimes a little difficult to manage, and never shy of telling us what he thought, he nevertheless bowled consistently well throughout the season, always batted and fielded with spirit, and was a key member of the team whenever he played. So the all-rounder award goes to James Dadge.

That just leaves it for us to thank all the boys for making this summer so enjoyable, to thank Richard Mansfield for his help in running the training sessions on Fridays, and to thank all the parents for shipping their sons around the area sometimes at very short notice. Cheers.

Paul Frost & Kevin Lambert U13s managers

Colts U11 Report 2003

On the 24 April, after just one match, optimism for the season was very high. Our record was played one (away to Teddington), won one. Everyone, boys, parents and coach were convinced that this was to be OUR season.

However, six matches and six defeats later in the Middlesex League and Cup, reality had struck and we were nearly back to square one.

We lost only one match in the subsequent Jim Warden trophy to the eventual winners of our group Egham. In addition, we lost one match in the initial round on the Middlesex Plate competition but I’m not sure many of the parents and supporters actually remember this result thanks to the fine hospitality from our opposition, Hampton Wick Royal. Two bottles of wine and a crate of beer!

The season then finished with a very impressive run of 8 victories on the trot. This run included a farcical two matches in one day to sort out the finalist for the Middlesex Plate competition and the Middlesex Plate Final itself.

The season ended, as it started, at Teddington on Sunday, September 7 when we met Twickenham in the Plate final. Three earlier defeats by Twickenham was a cause for some concern for coach and parents but not for the boys. An impressive batting performance had Ashford 100 for 2 after only 13 overs but Twickenham fought back and a final score of 117 for 8 was a little disappointing but still, nevertheless, defendable.

Excellent bowling and above all tremendous fielding saw Ashford home. Twickenham came close at 108 for 3 but they were never up with the run-rate and they never really looked like winning.

There were 11 boys there on that Sunday morning but a total of 21 different boys represented Ashford during the season and the credit must go to the whole squad. When someone was not available, for whatever reason, there was always a good replacement willing and available to fill in.

Not all the boys got the opportunities they would have wished to bat, bowl or keep wicket but I did try to get as many involved as possible. It is a very difficult balance to keep parents and coach happy by winning matches but also to keep ALL the boys happy by ensuring they have a part to play in the team. I was not always successful in this respect but I hope and think that most of the boys enjoyed their season.

The batting was dominated by one player. He scored nearly half the sides total runs for the season and more than twice as many runs as the next highest. More about Shaun later. The remainder of the batting was shared between Daniel Rose, Daniel Moss, Tom Green, Ryan Blake, Shaun Smith, David Merchant and Peter Russell. All produced useful innings on occasions and their consistency did improve during the season. Daniel Rose in particular developed during the season and ended with a very impressive 248 runs. Other boys who also scored runs but were not perhaps given as many opportunities as they would have liked were Daniel Miller, Robert King, Alex Zammit, James Beauchamp, David Harmer, David Lee, Adam Geeves, Chris Hill, and Alex Griffiths.

The bowling was also shared around with David Merchant, Tom Green, Ryan Blake, Adam Geeves, Daniel Moss, Shaun Smith and Shaun Cousens all taking valuable wickets. Other wicket takers were Daniel Miller, Tom Betts, Peter Russell and James Beauchamp. One impressive feature of our bowling this year was the improvement in accuracy. Most of the boys bowled much straighter as the season progressed. Runs conceded is always very important during 20 over matches but Ashford had two boys with economy rates of under 4 runs an over; Shaun Cousens and David Merchant.

The wicket keeping had been a bit of a problem in previous season but Daniel Rose volunteered early in the season and with very few exceptions, kept throughout the year. His catching and stopping was tremendous and as a consequence, the number of wides and byes limited. Well done Daniel. I know you wanted to bowl more but wicket keeping is such a vital role, I wanted to ensure we had our best behind the stumps.

A cricket team consists of 11 players but there were occasions when not everyone got the opportunity to perform. The rest of the squad turned out regularly at practice and fielded willingly even if they could not contribute as much as perhaps they would have liked. Thanks to the contributions from Daniel Barnett, Stefano D’Adamo and Freddie Cottrell in matches and also thanks to those who did not get a chance to play. Your opportunity will come next season – Furqan Bhullar, Jiwan Gill, Ben Brown, Reece Crawley, Ian Doggett, Robert Sloan and Andrew McGill.

The U11 side received tremendous support from the parents throughout the season but more specific help is still required. Managers cannot get everything ready before a game, umpire or score during a game, collect the match fees and then tidy up after a game. Help is urgently needed. More and better coaching is a target at Ashford. Better coaching involves one to one coaching but this can only happen with more parental help to relieve the coaches of some of the administrative burden of running a Colts team. Please help, no offers will be refused.

I would like to thank everyone who assisted in anyway throughout the season to ensure that Friday's were enjoyable and that match days ran smoothly. A special thanks to Paul Cousens and Bethan for their help and assistance on match days with umpiring and scoring and thanks to Carla Rose for her ever-present help with collecting the match fees. Thanks to Bethan and everyone else who assisted on Friday nights and to Richard Mansfield for his coaching. Thanks of course also to Halliford Construction for their financial support, which has helped the Colts in a number of specific areas and the Club overall in its development programme.

I look forward to seeing you all again next year.

The 2003 U11 Awards:

Batting award - Shaun Cousens who scored 503 runs at a very impressive average. His captaincy and fielding were inspirational and his bowling usually accurate. He also ended the season as first choice wicket keeper for the Ashford 3^rd XI while also scoring many more runs while performing in nearly every junior and senior side in the Club.

Bowling award – David Merchant (jnr) with 12 wickets and at a rate of just over three runs an over. David’s bowling was metronomic. His consistency for a boy of 10 was outstanding and on one occasion he received praise for his accuracy from the opposition while representing Ashford Sunday 2^nd XI.

All Round award – Daniel Rose for his excellent contributions with both bat and gloves. His maturity, quick thinking, quick running between the wickets and his overall enthusiasm means he is a real prospect for the future.