The U17s had a reasonable season winning over half over their games. This was a great side to manage and all of the squad played well at different times. Simon Cook captained the side fairly and thoughtfully all season. Whenever we were short of U17s younger players such as Dan Rose, James Wheeler, Steven Smith, Shaun Cousens, Harry Jackman, Ian and Graham Doggett came in and played very well.

The team’s fielding, as with the Under 15s, was a real area of strength. All of the boys practiced hard and performed well in the field. Special mention goes to Ian Antonio, Himesh Patel, Chris Butler and Lee Cousens who all fielded to a high standard throughout season.

Ashford U17s played some strong teams this year and wickets were hard to come by. All the boys put in many good performances during the season. Three boys took four or more wickets, with Iffy Anwar and Himesh taking four wickets each. However, this year’s bowling award went to one of the younger boys, Shaun Cousens, who took six wickets at an average of 13 runs per wicket. 

Good contributions with the bat were made by many players including, Rana, Adam Hunt, James Wheeler, Shaun Cousens and Dan Rose. Himesh Patel scored 76 runs at an average of 15 while Simon Cook amassed 98 runs in just four innings.

The 2006 winner of the batting award was Ian Antonio. He scored 157 runs at an average of nearly 40 and showed great concentration when batting. Ian was also one of several colts that in 2006 progressed to play for the senior sides; and he produced some excellent scores in the process. Congratulations to Ian for earning this award.

This year’s most improved player was Iffy Anwar who improved in his batting, bowling and fielding. He turned up for training every week and finished the season opening the bowling for the adult 3rd XI. Well done Iffy.

As in previous years, thanks must go to Ike Gill and Kevin Antonio who made my life easy by helping with the training of the Under 15s and Under 17s, on a weekly basis. They turned up for most of the games to help with umpiring and scoring. The time and effort they both put in was greatly appreciated.

Thanks are also due to Mike Rose, Safdar Butt, Sue Jackman and the Doggett family for their help with umpiring, collecting money and scoring at each game.

Finally, as most of you will remember, Simon Cook’s father, Keith, passed away three years ago. One of the things that Keith would regularly speak to me about was the behaviour of colts and the effort made by individuals. With Simon’s mother’s agreement, Ashford CC presents a ‘Keith Cook’ award each year to one of the older boys in the colts who shows the qualities that Keith appreciated in the game.

When thinking about the award for 2006, I took into consideration a colt’s ability to be part of a team and behaviour in matches and training. I also looked for improvement and the reasons why there had been an improvement. The award went to Paul Fleckney. Paul tried very hard in every game he played in. He showed a great willingness to listen and learn in the nets. He was a great team member and took the brunt of the occasional joke that U17s can play, with a huge smile on his face. Paul also helped out with umpiring the youngsters with their games and helped out on School’s Kwik Cricket days. It is an honour to win this award and congratulations to Paul for doing so well throughout 2006. 

Paul Cousens
U17 manager

Colts U15 Report 2006

The Ashford U15 team had a fantastic year, coming top of their league and winning all of their matches. Winning the league was a real team effort with 25 boys being used throughout the season. All of the boys played a major part in the games. Many players showed a large improvement in skill and ability over previous years and there were some individual performances of a very high standard.

Highlights of the season included opening partnerships of 135 between James Wheeler and Shaun Cousens and 111 and 98 between Dan Rose and Shaun. Bowling out Hampton Hill for only 55 runs with Ashford’s reply coming in just five overs was a great team effort. Individuals’ highlights were many but Graham Doggett taking at least one wicket in every game he played in was a credit to Graham’s consistency and hard work throughout the year.

A big plus this year was that we were often able to bowl all 10 players in a game, with only the wicket keeper missing out, and still win matches. All of the team fielded with enthusiasm. Everyone made a real effort in the field, which was one of the main reasons why so many games were won.

Twenty different players bowled in the league games. Players taking wickets in these league games included George Fastendege, Chris Hill, Arjun Gill, Hamzah, Shaun Smith, James Wheeler, Dan Rose and Alex Griffiths. Well done to all of those boys. Six other players took six or more wickets. Saajan Vaid and Sagar Badwal took six wickets and Steven Smith and Harry Jackman claimed seven each.

Shaun Cousens took 10 wickets at an average of only 6.70 per wicket, but ahead in the figures for the bowling award was Graham Doggett, who took 12 wickets at an average of 6.58.

I was very pleased to be able to award Graham the bowling prize. He always opened the bowling, therefore bowling against the opponents’ better batsmen. And with the effort he made in the nets, Graham really earned this award. 

There were good contributions with the bat from many players. Although not always scoring many runs, excellent batting support was provided by Sagar Badwal, Saarjan Vaid, Ben Claridge, Peter Russell, Chris Hill, Robert King, Alex Griffiths, Navraj, Steven Smith and Elliot Smith. Hanzah did not play many games for us, but when he batted he always looked in control. Hopefully next year he will be able to play a major part in the team. Harry Jackman, an under 13 player, batted well scoring his 47 runs with an average of slightly over 15.

James Wheeler scored 116 runs at an average of nearly 25, often opening the batting against the oppositions’ stronger bowlers. Dan Rose also batted high in the order and scored 130 runs at a very good average of 32.50. However, the 2006 award for batting went to Shaun Cousens. Shaun scored 298 runs at an average of 42.57.

The manager’s award was presented to Dan Rose. He fielded well, batted excellently under pressure, bowled when required and also kept wicket for most games. He turned up early for every match and always helped with setting up the boundary markers and putting out the stumps, prior to the game starting. Dan was generally a great help and also played many games for the adult 3rd and 4th XIs with great enthusiasm. 

This most improved player award could have gone to many under 15 colts for the 2006 season. There was a marked improvement with so many of them, the team’s success is evidence to this. After much thought, this award was given to a colt who turned up for training nearly every week. He has always tried to improve and was very receptive to help the coaches gave him. Congratulations to Chris Hill.

Paul Cousens
U15 manager

Colts U13 Report 2006

The season started poorly with just three wins from the first eight games, but thankfully after we beat Valley End at home by three wickets in the last over, the whole team started to believe again that they could beat anyone. Thanks to this self-belief we went on to reach the final in the Ray Denne knockout competition, losing to Walton. We’re still to play Twickenham in the final for the Middlesex plate, which will be held early next season.

Overall, I believe if the core of this team stay together over the foreseeable future, and continue to improve and believe in themselves, they will definitely go on to winning trophies for the Club.

Following the trend from last year’s under 13 awards, I’ve based this year’s bowling award on economy rate rather than most wickets taken. Jamie Watson bowled with an economy rate of just 3.5 runs per over – if everyone bowled in the same manner we would be chasing no more than 70 runs per game! So well done Jamie.

For the batting the main players were Dan Moss scoring 172 runs at an average of 12.29, Harry Jackman scoring 239 runs at an average of 19.92 and David Merchant scoring 309 runs at an average of 23.77. The award went to David who had volunteered to open the batting when others were not very keen.

The final award, which I call my all rounder award, went to a lad who took the second most wickets for the season, he took numerous catches and was responsible for five run-outs, also as mentioned earlier he finished with a batting average of 19.92. The all rounder of 2006 was Harry Jackman.

Finally, thanks to all those involved with the under 13 team, especially the coaches Kevin Lambert and Mike Rose, Sue Moss for collecting match fees, and not least Bernard Tippell for scoring all the games.

David Merchant
U13 manager

Colts U12 Report 2006

This was a disappointing year for the Under 12s, the team only winning one match in the league although we were awarded two other matches as the opposition could not play us. The large increase in the number of under 12s this year made selecting sides very difficult, but every player I hope played in a couple of games at least.

I would not like to single out any of the boys in particular because there are too many to mention and they have all been a pleasure to coach and manage. They always played the matches in the right spirit showing excellent team spirit even when things were not going our way. Congratulations to Joe White for taking a hat-trick. And well done to Jiwan Gill, Jasraj Sanghera and Ian Doggett for making the Middlesex West Area team.

The best bowler this year was very closely contended between two lads. Liam Balmer took nine wickets at an average of 14.5 and an economy rate of 4.5 runs per over. But the winner was Jiwan Gill who also claimed nine wickets but at an average of 10.1 and an incredible economy rate of only 2.8 runs per over.

The Best batsman was a lot easier to select. Scoring an incredible 169 runs at an average of 34 and a top score of 44 not out, he was Jasraj Sanghera.

The managers’ award this year goes to Chris Harding, a boy who has shown all the things expected in a young cricketer. He never complained about being asked to open the innings, always a hard place to bat. He stood in for Ian as wicket keeper when Ian was with the Under 13s, attended every training session and he even got his Dad down at the weekends. I hope to see you all again next year.

Mark Doggett
U12 manager

Colts U11 Report 2006

Played: 19; W:13; L:4; AB:2

2006 was a very good season for the under 11s. The team finished second in the Middlesex League having played eight league games, won six, lost one with one game called off because of rain while we were in a very strong position. In the Jim Warden Cup the boys again lost only one game to finish second in their group. In the Middlesex Cup they lost in the first round by three runs to Twickenham in a thrilling match.

During the season the team spirit was unbelievable as was the camaraderie. The skill and ability of the boys improved so much through the season thanks to the coaching of Richard Mansfield and Chris Evans. In the matches our batting nearly always set off to a good start thanks to good batting from Matthew Frost, Abbas Kauser and Diljeet Gaurav – each of the three boys scored more than 150 runs. There were six 50-partnerships in the top order, one of which was a stand of 93 between Diljeet and Matthew.

We started with only five strong bowlers. Diljeet, Abbas, James McKenna, Dhanveer Mand and Dave King. But as the season progressed other bowlers started to flower such as James Russel, Akshay Marwaha and Toby and James Manser. Diljeet took 24 wickets, including one four-wicket haul, while Abbas took 14 wickets and bowled very tight.

Matthew Frost reluctantly started the season as wicket-keeper, However, by the end of the season Dave King, Steve Rutland and Ryan Croxon had all done good stints behind the stumps.

And finally, this year’s awards: the batting award went to Matthew Frost; the bowling award was won by Diljeet Singh; and the manager’s went to the Abbas Kauser. Congratulations everyone on an excellent season.

David Frost
U11 manager

Colts U10 Report 2006

The under 10s had a very enjoyable season. We had an enthusiastic group of young cricketers with an average of about 18 youngsters attending practice each Friday, though one Friday we actually had 27. So first of all thanks to our coaches Malcolm Ward and Safdar Butt for all their hard work in making the practices go so well.

We had eight matches over the season and unfortunately lost each one. However, the boys and girls played every game in the right spirit and with great sense of enjoyment. It is difficult to pick out players from the group but there were two particularly notable individual performances: Daniel Ward carried his bat in one match; and Joseph Balmer took four wickets in one over in another match. However, all the children who took part in matches performed brilliantly. It is also safe to say that everyone in the group improved significantly in the various aspects of the game to look much more capable cricketers towards the end of the season.

With regard to the end of season awards the aforementioned Daniel and Joseph won the batting and bowling awards and Jenny Tippell won the Manager's award. It was a shame to only present these three awards as all the children deserved an award for their efforts. So well done to our regulars: Thomas, Greg, Philip, Kiran, Jack, Francis, Luke, Max, Avneet, Sam, Abishek, Rahul, Matthew, Jasroop, Ryan, Oliver, Liam and Azim (apologies if I've missed anyone). Some of these players will still be under 10 next season, which augurs well. Ultimately, the fact that so many boys and girls are interested in and want to play cricket is for me the real success story of the season.