The Gentlemen of West London Cricket Club

Decade

Career records and major achievements of Gents' members

he actual averages as well as the aggregate totals of runs and wickets are contained in the next few pages and prove mainly that good players are better than less good players. At this level, however, availability is a much-prized quality! That old Jeremiah Simon Alderman once wrote to The Gent that there was a danger that “the social aspect of the club would eventually be subsumed by the will to win” and that the side would eventually contain “seven or eight gifted all rounders to the exclusion of other players.” The statistics below neither prove nor disprove this assertion.

Members and former members	M	Inn.	NO	Runs	50s	O	M	R	W	4-w	Ct.
Simon Alderman 89-94	36	23	14	49	-	98.1	3	466	28	2	7
Bob Ashton 88-89	8	8	1	151	1	58.2	5	225	12	-	-
Mark Ashton 88-97	127	120	16	3,257	22	778.5	135	2,353	217	18	40
Steve Bignell 90-97	49	45	6	736	2	183.2	24	731	48	-	15
John Black 90-96	23	11	1	12	-	89.5	10	408	17	1	2
Nick Boddington 90-97	55	56	4	1,036	4	319.1	45	1,154	72	3	18
Tony Buck 96-97	12	11	1	101	-	4.1	0	26	3	-	5
Andy Burman 88-97	123	99	19	455	-	52.4	5	276	15	-	14
Mark Burville 93-97	54	49	7	406	-	8.3	0	35	4	-	17
Des Dolan 88-97	65	48	15	301	-	347.2	46	1,268	72	2	12
Roger Farr 89-92	11	8	3	35	-	5	0	28	1	-	1
Gavin Fryer-Kelsey 95-97	11	8	2	12	-	1	0	12	0	-	3
Frank Gallagher 88-95	37	25	10	52	-	8.5	1	73	3	-	3
Steve Haywood 88-92	19	16	2	77	-	-	-	-	-	-	1
Nick Hubbocks 88-96	55	52	2	1,094	8	142.1	12	644	25	1	17
Mike Hughes 92-97	48	46	3	952	5	-	-	-	-	-	22
Ian Maughan 89-97	64	60	11	1,131	7	16	0	114	6	1	40
Chris Mitchell 96-97	17	16	2	269	2	38.2	6	156	10	-	2
Andy Monk 92-96	41	29	8	147	-	75	6	336	14	-	11
Gary Moore 91	7	6	1	38	-	41	6	198	3	-	2
Bill Murphy 94-97	25	25	3	213	-	26.5	5	115	9	-	5
Colin Naish 96-97	12	10	2	53	-	-	-	-	-	-	7
Dhruv Patel 94-97	46	44	9	922	2	211.4	22	816	70	8	13
Sanjay Patel 95-97	21	20	1	336	1	103	10	362	23	-	7
Marty Renvoize 89-94	38	30	6	172	-	13	0	76	1	-	5
Ian Richmond 88-97	59	50	11	352	-	6	0	48	2	-	6
Richard Sambrook Smith 90-94	27	24	3	190	-	25	0	135	2	-	14
Stuart Snelling 95-97	50	39	9	211	-	362.2	72	980	106	8	4
Mick Stratford 88-89	4	3	0	0	-	-	-	-	-	-	-
Dave Thornicroft 93-95	28	27	6	362	2	127	16	506	33	2	10
Daniel Todd 91-97	92	71	10	803	2	450.3	48	1,722	93	4	15
John Townley 88-95	62	59	9	462	-	21.2	0	139	10	-	15
Rich Wilman 90-94	27	25	2	306	1	131	8	598	35	3	13
Jim Wright 94-97	47	44	6	637	3	183.3	32	646	47	2	14

Total Members	1,400	1,207	205	15,330	62	3,928.5	517	14,646	981	55	360

More than 200 runs in a season			More than 15 wickets in a season			More than 5 catches in a season
514	Nick Hubbocks	1994	40	Stuart Snelling	1997	14	Ian Maughan	1993
503	Mark Ashton	1995	38	Mark Ashton	1993	11	Ian Maughan	1994
493	Mark Ashton	1996	37	Mark Ashton	1994	9	Rich Wilman O	1993
490	Mark Ashton	1993	35	Stuart Snelling	1996	8	Steve Bignell O	1993
440	Mark Ashton	1992	34	Dhruv Patel	1997	7	Richard S’k Smith	1992
357	Mark Ashton	1991	31	Stuart Snelling	1995	7	Mark Ashton O	1994
336	Mark Ashton	1997	29	Mark Ashton	1996	7	Dave Thornicroft O	1994
330	Dhruv Patel	1997	27	Mark Ashton	1992	7	Mark Ashton O	1995
322	Dhruv Patel	1996	27	Mark Ashton	1995	7	Colin Naish	1997
311	Mike Hughes	1993	25	Steve Bignell	1993	6	Richard S’k Smith	1991
294	Daniel Todd	1995	23	Mark Ashton	1991	6	Ian Maughan	1992
285	Steve Bignell	1993	23	Daniel Todd	1994	6	Mike Hughes	1995
281	Mark Ashton	1994	20	Daniel Todd	1993	6	Mark Ashton O	1996
250	Sanjay Patel	1997	20	Dhruv Patel	1996	6	Mark Burville	1996
241	Steve Bignell	1994	20	Sanjay Patel	1997	6	Mike Hughes	1997
232	Nick Hubbocks	1993	19	Jim Wright	1995	6	Dhruv Patel O	1997
230	Ian Maughan	1990	17	Daniel Todd	1992	5	Mark Ashton O	1992
218	Mike Hughes	1994	16	Daniel Todd	1996	5	Robin Hunt G O	1992
218	Jim Wright	1997	15	Des Dolan	1993	5	Mark Ashton O	1993
211	Ian Maughan	1994	15	Dave Thornicroft	1994	5	Mike Hughes	1994
209	Chris Mitchell	1997	15	Phil Hill G	1996	5	Milton Jolin G	1994
						5	Andy Burman O	1996
	G guest player					5	Tony Buck O	1997
	O outfielder					5	Mark Burville O	1997

Current Members, key facts and their records

Mark Ashton - right-hand bat, right-arm medium-fast bowler

Known as; The Commander, Masher, Four Bogs HS 137* BB 7-44

Scored two hundreds, figured in 8 century stands and record stands for 3^rd, 4^th, 5^th, 6^th, 8^th, 9^th and 10^thwickets

Honours; All Rounder of Year 1990, 1993 (joint) and 1994. Batsman of Year 1991, 1992, 1995 and 1996. Bowler of Year 1991, 1993 and 1994, Captain 1988-1997

Characteristics; Club icon and top all rounder who leads by example rather than oratory. Retreating to boundary, head in hands, when things are not going well. Chivvying people along with use of daft nicknames. Dominating the averages, despite a succession of injuries to knee, foot and hand. Vocabulary apt to narrow a tad when things are not going well but does not bear grudges, although those of sensitive disposition should not phone him on Saturday evenings to declare non-availability. Shoulders perhaps 90% of the team organisational duties

Year	M	Inn.	NO	Runs	50s	Avg.	O	M	R	W	4-w	Avg.	Ct.

1988	2	2	0	43		21.50	13	1	29	1	-	29.00	-
1989	6	6	0	159	1	26.50	37.2	4	99	13	1	7.62	1
1990	9	9	2	155	1	22.14	66	9	193	13	-	14.85	1
1991	11	11	2	357	3	39.67	75.5	15	190	23	2	8.26	4
1992	15	15	2	440	4	33.85	102.2	19	322	27	2	11.93	5
1993	20	18	1	490	4	28.82	128.2	29	325	38	3	8.55	5
1994	16	14	0	281	1	20.07	124	26	344	37	5	9.30	7
1995	16	16	2	503	3	35.93	88.1	10	306	27	2	11.33	7
1996	19	17	4	493	2	37.92	110.5	17	422	29	3	14.55	6
1997	13	12	2	336	3	33.60	33	5	123	9	-	13.67	4

Total	127	120	16	3,257	22	31.32	778.5	135	2,353	217	18	10.84	40

Steve Bignell - right-hand bat, right-arm medium or leg-spin bowler

Known as; Biggers HS 67* BB 3-9. Figured in 2 century stands and record stand for 1^st wicket

Honours; All Rounder of Year 1993 (joint)

Characteristics; Sound opening batsman and intelligent strategist. Transfer from West XI in 1993 caused a sensation. Elephantine memory. Giggling. Impersonating team-mates. Brilliant sense of hearing whenever his rate of scoring is criticised (e.g. after his 38 not out in 50 overs v. London Saints in 1993). Editor of hard-hitting West XI fanzine Yes..No..Sorry! and most recently club captain, which explained his reduced 1997 appearances

Year	M	Inn.	NO	Runs	50s	Avg.	O	M	R	W	4-w	Avg.	Ct.

1990	1	1	0	14	-	14.00	6	0	28	2	-	14.00	-
1992	2	2	0	19	-	9.50	11	1	39	1	-	39.00	1
1993	19	17	2	285	-	19.00	88.2	17	288	25	-	11.52	8
1994	10	10	3	241	2	34.43	33	3	164	10	-	16.40	1
1995	7	6	0	79	-	13.17	21	2	119	4	-	29.75	1
1996	8	7	0	49	-	7.00	24	1	93	6	-	15.50	3
1997	2	2	1	49	-	49.00	-	-	-	-	-	-	1

Total	49	45	6	736	2	18.87	183.2	24	731	48	-	15.23	15

Nick Boddington - left-hand bat, slow left-arm bowler

Known as; Bodders HS 78 BB 4-12

Honours; All Rounder of Year 1991. Most Improved Player 1991. Captain’s Award 1996. Chairman 1993-1997

Characteristics; Stylish, consistent batsman and spin bowler with encyclopaedic knowledge of own performances. Excellent deep catcher. Dragged The Gent into the cyberspace age with an e-mailed match report of the July 1997 West XI game. Maintainer of statistically suspect “Gents database,” harshly described in Yes..No..Sorry! as “complete and utter bollocks.” Chum of The Commander since school. 1992 appearances total debited by one after chauffeur John Black predictably failed to pick him up after encountering wheel-change problem

Year	M	Inn.	NO	Runs	50s	Avg.	O	M	R	W	4-w	Avg.	Ct.

1990	7	7	1	110	-	18.33	40	6	169	9	-	18.78	1
1991	8	8	1	120	-	17.14	45	8	147	11	1	13.36	3
1992	7	7	0	158	-	22.57	42	5	162	8	-	20.25	4
1993	5	5	0	159	1	31.80	32	5	137	5	-	27.40	-
1994	8	8	1	125	-	17.86	43	9	148	11	-	13.45	4
1995	5	6	0	132	2	22.00	30.1	5	68	9	-	7.56	1
1996	7	7	1	135	1	22.50	44	6	164	11	1	14.91	2
1997	8	8	0	97	-	12.13	43	1	159	8	1	19.88	3

Total	55	56	4	1,036	4	19.92	319.1	45	1,154	72	3	16.03	18

Tony Buck - right-hand bat, right-arm medium bowler

Known as; Buck, Buckets, Golden Boy of Cricket HS 24 BB 2-11

Characteristics; Fine slip fielder. Wicked cropped haircut. FC Chad stalwart. Huge tonks to leg. Distressed trouserings which have included grey ski pants and Royal Navy tropical shorts, but much tidier recently

Year	M	Inn.	NO	Runs	50s	Avg.	O	M	R	W	4-w	Avg.	Ct.

1996	1	1	0	7	-	7.00	-	-	-	-	-	-	-
1997	11	10	1	94	-	10.44	4.1	0	26	3	-	8.67	5

Total	12	11	1	101	-	10.11	4.1	0	26	3	-	8.67	5

Andy Burman - left-hand bat, slow left-arm bowler

Known as; Brooms HS 26* BB 3-17

Honours; Special Award 1990-7, Treasurer 1989-1992, Secretary 1993-1997

Characteristics; Occasional spats with the captain. Editor of The Gent fanzine. Keeper of records. Loyal stalwart and occasional tart for West XI, Enterprise and London Saints. Chum of The Commander since school

Year	M	Inn.	NO	Runs	50s	Avg.	O	M	R	W	4-w	Avg.	Ct.

1988	1	1	0	1	-	1.00	4	0	30	0	-	N/A	1
1989	6	6	0	35	-	5.83	2	0	16	1	-	16.00	-
1990	8	8	0	51	-	6.38	1	0	10	0	-	N/A	-
1991	13	13	0	76	-	5.85	3	0	21	1	-	21.00	1
1992	15	11	2	50	-	5.56	8	2	39	2	-	19.50	1
1993	16	11	2	58	-	6.44	7	0	41	1	-	41.00	1
1994	19	10	3	33	-	4.71	11.2	2	39	5	-	7.80	2
1995	17	14	5	57	-	6.33	7	1	34	2	-	17.00	2
1996	16	13	3	49	-	4.90	4.2	0	26	0	-	N/A	5
1997	12	12	4	45	-	5.63	5	0	20	3	-	6.67	1

Total	123	99	19	455	-	5.69	52.4	5	276	15	-	18.40	14

Mark Burville - right-hand bat, wicketkeeper

Known as; Burvo HS 44* BB 1-3. Figured in record stands for 6^th, 7^th and 8^th wickets

Honours; Fielder of Year 1995

Characteristics; Top outfielder prone to propel ball at passing jets after taking catches. Match-turning collisions with captain while wicketkeeping. Loud encouragings of bowlers. Underachieves with bat but great in nets

Year

Inn.

Runs

50s

Avg.

4-w

Avg.

Ct.