Ashford had a most enjoyable year in a very balanced league. Despite the run of back-to-back defeats at the end of the season, the team finished in third place and secured promotion to Division 1. All of the games were played in the correct spirit and each game was a pleasure to play in. All of the opposition played fairly and were a credit to their clubs.

Overall it was an impressive season for Ashford with some great results and individual scores. A superb start was made to the season with a win against Dorking, with excellent innings of 68 by Robert Evans and 50 from Dan Jones guiding us to victory. In the following game against Wallington, Usman was the pick of the bowling with four wickets for 18 runs and Chris White started the season in style with a score of 61.

Gavin ‘Pietersen’ MacDonald scored an exciting 71 and Rob Yewer took five wickets in a close game against Valley End. Veteran Kevin Lambert, supposedly in his last season, scored 70 runs and Dan Jones took 4 for 14 runs against Ashtead.

The ever consistent Anthony Dench took five wickets against Epsom, our only winning draw of the season and 4 for 23 against Woodmansterne. Against East Molesey, Wasim Ahmed scored 63, Himesh Patel 54 and Asad took 6 wickets. Other individual scores of note throughout the season included Rashid Mahmood’s 65 against Old Emanuel, Paul Cousens’ leg-sided 63 against Kempton and Asad’s aggressive 54 against Pyrford. Shaun Cousens took 6 for 36 runs also against Pyrford. James Jock Knill with bowling figures of 4 for 20 against Egham and 4 for 33 against Sanderstead again proved his worth for the 3rd XI.

Of all the players who batted for Ashford 3rds in 2006, two stand out. Dan Jones, who averaged 41 batted consistently well. He rarely looked in trouble in the seven matches he played for the 3rd XI and was quite rightly promoted to the 2nd XI for the second half of the season. Chris White had a great season scoring 323 runs at an average of nearly 30 runs.

Of the bowlers James Knill was, as in 2005, by far the most impressive bowler with 26 wickets. Each of these wickets cost only 13 runs. Other bowlers who performed well in many games were, Rob Yewer with 19 wickets at 22 runs per wicket, Anthony Dench with 16 wickets and Dan Jones who in only seven games took 15 wickets. Lee Cousens joined the team late in the season and took 14 wickets and Asad, Shaun Cousens, John White, Iqbal Gill and Iffy Anwar each had great individual figures.  

The effort on the field was admirable, though too many catches were dropped. Fourteen year-old Dan Rose and Rob Evans shared the wicket keeping with Dan having some exceptional games, taking 11 catches. John White, Dan Jones and Umair stood out in the field, taking some great catches.

Thanks to Chris White who helped me as vice captain throughout the season. Also to Rob Evans who quietly gave advice to me when necessary.

A huge thank you to John Bird for scoring most games during the season. Well done to Ashford’s groundsman John Watson, for producing a 3rd team pitch that I believe is among the best in the league and matches many of the 1st team pitches in the County.

There were many other players who played throughout the season. They know who they are and I would like to express my appreciation to them all for helping to make this such an enjoyable and successful season.