We take great delight in winning this award, and we are also extremely  proud to say that we finished the 2006 season with the highest tally of every team in the entire league, spanning all 8 divisions, with a mark of 8.89

We would like to thank every team in our division for helping us towards this achievement, and we look forward to seeing our old friends and meeting some new friends in the 2007 season.

The opening pair put on a massive 210 for the first wicket, before Barker fell 10 short of what would have been a deserved century. Spry went on to complete a magnificent unbeaten century before he unselfishly retired.

The contrasting batting styles seemed to complement each other, and this record will surely stand for some time to come.

With the arrival of Jo Nash to strengthen the squad, Arthington started well and were unbeaten after the first 5 matches. Defeat came at Ouseburn, but Arthington rallied to win the next 5. During this period, Arthington again lost Chris Pennington for the rest of the season after a horrific freak accident at home to Gas Sports.

The rest of the season saw some good and bad performances, Arthington mainly struggling with a lack of bowling. Having won just 3 of the last 7 games, Arthington fell from being league leaders to finishing 5th overall.

At the start of the season, if someone had offered us 5th overall we would have taken it, but we can't help feeling disappointed after leading the league for so long.

Plus points to come from the season were the batting of Jo Nash in his first season at Arthington, and the emergence of youngster Joe Watts as one of the first names on the team sheet, whose bowling improved every time he played.

Arthington are starting now to put a good side together, and the prospect of several new, talented players for 2006 along with the return of Chris Pennington should mean a good season next year.

ARTHINGTON PROMOTED !!!!!

Having finished in 3rd position for 3 consecutive years, then 5th in the 2003 season, Arthington were hopeful of promotion this year, and started well, winning the first four matches of the season. But then after heavy back-to-back defeats to Pannal and West Tanfield, Arthington were left to wonder if they were yet again facing another season in the bottom division. Worse news was to follow for Arthington as they had to tackle the whole of the second half of the season without captain and all-rounder Chris Pennington, who suffered a back injury playing at Bolton Abbey.

This news, however, seemed only to spur the remaining players on, who added an extra gear to their game and Arthington started playing well as a unit, probably the best team effort seen in matches since we joined the Nidderdale. This teamwork saw Arthington go without another defeat until the last game of the season, after the vital points needed to secure promotion were awarded for a rained off game at Harrogate, who also secured the Championship on this day.

Whereas in previous seasons, Arthington have relied too heavily on individual players, everyone who wore the Arthington shirt in this difficult period excelled themselves, with no exceptions. John Watts took up the main task of replacing Pennington's bowling, and what a job he did. A career best haul of 6-26 against Ripon, and many other great spells saw him take many of the credits for Arthington's success. Ably aided by Dudley Rawlings, Simon Eltringham, John Ogden, Graham Wright, Brian Meredith, Dennis Nash, Richie Hunt and all the other players, it seemed that whenever one person blobbed, another stepped up to succeed.

It was this level of teamwork, and a belief that we could do it, that guided us to a hard-fought second place, and the reward of promotion to division 6 was the icing on the cake for a season of thoroughly enjoyable cricket.