Surrey Championship 4th XI Premier: Played: 16; W: 9; D: 1; L: 4; Tie: 1; No result: 1; League finish: 3rd

After finishing fourth in a league of nine in the 2008 season and on paper being the weakest side to be promoted into the premier league, I had some concerns about playing in the premier league this year.

Despite my concerns we had a fantastic season finishing third in the table of nine above teams that finished above us in 2008 (Sunbury and Ashtead). We played 16 league game, winning nine games to amass 129 points, which was an excellent effort from all those involved. There were games that we narrowly lost that we potentially could have won with a little extra strength in the team on the day, which would have further enhanced our final league position.

This year we have seen some of the younger Colts start to come through into senior cricket and probably they did not get as many opportunities as I would have hoped because of capable adult players being available. However, with Dan Simper running a 5th XI most of the Colts got regular cricket and the best performers were given the opportunity to play in the 4th XI on occasion.

The bowling of Shakir Khan, Hafiz Khan, Ali Siddiqi and Tiamoor Anwar was memorable, each of them taking wickets at key stages of games. In addition, Paul Wilson bowled well in the few games he played with the 4th XI. The batting was not dominated by any individual but there were five exceptional innings by Saquib Ansari (82), Imtiaz Khan (61) and Dan Rose (80) Hasib Butt (54) and Khasif Hameed (51*).

There were two highlights of the season. The first was beating Spencer at Ashford by seven wickets, where we chased down 206 thanks to a partnership of 150 from Saquib and Imtiaz. The other was finally beating Wimbledon at their home ground where we chased 195; this was a great game in which Ali Siddiqui showed his batting skills in hitting an unbeaten 44 to win the game.

Picking an overall player of the season was a tough decision but for his commitment and regular performances with ball and bat this award goes to Hafiz Khan.

I would like to add my thanks to Jaz Rehncy who came to several home games to umpire and also to Elaine Doggett who did the scoring in some of the games, an not forgetting Safdar who gave great support in the running of the side.

Overall, I believe this has been a great season which has seen the quality of cricket go up a notch and hopefully this will continue to next year. My thanks to everyone who made this possible.