Premier Cricket: Pat Ashton named new Ringwood captain

Ringwood leg-spinner Pat Ashton wants to take the Rams back to “winning finals and playing in premierships” after being unveiled as the club’s new captain.

Pat Ashton rolls the arm over. Picture: Sarah Matray

PAT Ashton recalls well the 2014-15 premiership.

And it’s where the Ringwood leg-spinner wants to see the club rise to again.

Ashton, 24, has been announced as the Rams new skipper, taking over from Ian Holland.

Ringwood CC is excited to announce that our First XI Captain for the 2019/20 season is Patrick Ashton.

The leg spinner was part of our 2014/15 premiership side and has played in the First XI for a number of seasons now.

He will no doubt be a great leader of our proud club. pic.twitter.com/ohQg3VqbUF

— Ringwood CC (@RingwoodCC) May 17, 2019

Ringwood has missed finals for the past three years and Ashton wants to lead the club back up the Premier Cricket ladder.

It has finished 12th, 11th and 12th since the 2015-16 grand final, which followed three flags in eight seasons.

“I feel like we’ve underperformed dramatically given the skill set of our players,” Ashton said.

Pat Ashton provides a straight bat. Picture: Valeriu Campan

“We’ve got one in a 100-year players like Davo (David King) and Dutchy (Holland) and guys coming through like Fot (Matt Fotia) and Zak Evans.

“There’s huge potential there but it’s just about trying to get the team to jell and putting performances together.”

Holland stepped down from the role at the end of the season as he continues his County Cricket stint in the UK.

Ashton joined Ringwood in 2009-10 and has taken 122 wickets in 129 First XI games.

He said he wanted to ease the burden on the side’s top-end talent.

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“I think it will be about getting a more even spread from more players,” he said.

“Hopefully I can get the best out of the entire squad. Anyone who comes up has the ability to turn a game or win a match. I feel like I can extract that out of all our players.”

Ashton said he had a “passion to get the place back to where we were” and that’s “winning finals and playing in premierships”.

“Obviously I’ve got my own ideas on how I’d like the team to run and there’ll be a few changes and whatnot but there’ll be nothing groundbreaking,” he said.

“I think we’ve just got to get back to playing that hard, unrelenting brand of cricket that the Rams have played for a long, long period when we had that 10 years of real success.”