John Robert Ashman (20 May 1926 – 4 March 2019) was an English cricketer, who played

first-class cricket First-class cricket, along with List A cricket and Twenty20 cricket, is one of the highest-standard forms of cricket. A first-class match is one of three or more days' scheduled duration between two sides of eleven players each and is officiall ...

for

Yorkshire Yorkshire ( ; abbreviated Yorks), formally known as the County of York, is a Historic counties of England, historic county in northern England and by far the largest in the United Kingdom. Because of its large area in comparison with other Eng ...

and

Worcestershire Worcestershire ( , ; written abbreviation: Worcs) is a county in the West Midlands of England. The area that is now Worcestershire was absorbed into the unified Kingdom of England in 927, at which time it was constituted as a county (see His ...

in the early 1950s. Having played for Yorkshire's Second XI since the age of 20, Ashman was given his first-class debut against

Surrey Surrey () is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan county in South East England, bordering Greater London to the south west. Surrey has a large rural area, and several significant urban areas which form part of the Greater London Built-up Area. ...

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in June 1951. He took four wickets in the match, including that of

Test Test(s), testing, or TEST may refer to: * Test (assessment), an educational assessment intended to measure the respondents' knowledge or other abilities Arts and entertainment * ''Test'' (2013 film), an American film * ''Test'' (2014 film), ...

player Arthur McIntyre in both innings, but was then returned to the seconds. Indeed, this was the only first-team appearance he made for Yorkshire, and after a year out the following season he moved to Worcestershire for 1953. Ashman came straight into the first team at New Road for the tour match against the

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in late April. Although he took no wickets in a high-scoring draw, he was retained for the

County Championship The County Championship (referred to as the LV= Insurance County Championship for sponsorship reasons) is the domestic first-class cricket competition in England and Wales and is organised by the England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB). It bec ...

match against

Somerset ( en, All The People of Somerset) , locator_map = , coordinates = , region = South West England , established_date = Ancient , established_by = , preceded_by = , origin = , lord_lieutenant_office =Lord Lieutenant of Somerset , lord_ ...

which followed. In this he returned an excellent match analysis of 36-24-36-5, and this set him up well to keep his place for the season. In all he took 41 first-class wickets at an

average In ordinary language, an average is a single number taken as representative of a list of numbers, usually the sum of the numbers divided by how many numbers are in the list (the arithmetic mean). For example, the average of the numbers 2, 3, 4, 7, ...

of 43.85, with a best return of 5–40 against

Glamorgan , HQ = Cardiff , Government = Glamorgan County Council (1889–1974) , Origin= , Code = GLA , CodeName = Chapman code , Replace = * West Glamorgan * Mid Glamorgan * South Glamorgan , Motto ...

in mid-May; Worcestershire lost this game by a single run. In 1954, Ashman played ten further games for the county, mostly in the middle of the season, but he did not have as much success as he had the previous year. He did record a career-best 7 for 111 against

Oxford University Oxford () is a city in England. It is the county town and only city of Oxfordshire. In 2020, its population was estimated at 151,584. It is north-west of London, south-east of Birmingham and north-east of Bristol. The city is home to the ...

, and 3 for 80 against their Cambridge counterparts, but these two performances aside he could not manage more than a single wicket in an innings. The disastrous game against Surrey at

The Oval The Oval, currently known for sponsorship reasons as the Kia Oval, is an international cricket ground in Kennington, located in the borough of Lambeth, in south London. The Oval has been the home ground of Surrey County Cricket Club since ...

in late August, when Worcestershire were humiliatingly dismissed for 25 and 40, proved to be his last in first-class cricket (Ashman took the single wicket of Bernie Constable), although he did turn out a couple of times for the Second XI in 1955. Ashman died in Southbourne, West Sussex in March 2019 at the age of 92.Ancestry LifeStory: John Robert Ashman
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References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Ashman, John 1926 births 2019 deaths English cricketers Cricketers from Rotherham Worcestershire cricketers Yorkshire cricketers English cricketers of 1946 to 1968