Esher 3rd XI started the season off with two strong wins home, showcasing the talents of new boy, Sam Gillat, who hit 50s in both games. A loss away to Chertsey did not perturb the team, as Esher proceeded to win eleven games in a row, finding the balance between all three disciplines in the vast majority of the matches.
During this period, batting first enabled Esher to regularly hit scores of 220+ runs. This was down to consistently excellent performances from the top 6, who all contributed scores throughout the season. 50s were scored by Joe Gilhooly, Nick Woollhead, Sam Gillat, Matthew Sabben-Clare, Jess Richman, William Tilston and John Woollhead. Gilhooly, Richman and J Woollhead were particular batting standouts, getting runs when the side needed them most. A special mention must also go to Rohan Gupta (U14), who was superb when called upon, batting well beyond his age. The bowlers backed up the batting performances excellently as well, with Chris Harvey and Ollie Baker bowling some fantastic opening spells to put the batsmen under the pressure. Through the middle overs, Alex Page (U17) and Tom Burnett kept things tight and brought control when it was needed. The pick of the bowlers were Chris Parrish (32 wickets) and Richie Harrison (25 wickets), who would often bowl in tandem. They bowled with complete control and would always pick up wickets to win us games.
The back end of the season saw a washed-out game and a tight loss leave us needing to beat top of the table, Valley End, with some stipulations attached. Having done what was needed with the ball, Esher were in a fantastic position to pull off a famous win, but ultimately just fell short; winning the game but with the loss of too many wickets. Esher ended up losing out on the title and promotion by one point; perhaps an undeserved way to finish the season.
Huge thanks to the panel umpires for officiating during the season