Ashton is Guinness Premiership player of the year
Northampton Saints winger Chris Ashton was last night named Guinness Premiership Player of the Season at a ceremony in London.
The 23-year-old scored 16 tries in his 20 league matches for Saints, including hat-tricks against Gloucester and Newcastle. Ashton's total is the highest in a single season for more than a decade and is second only to Dominic Chapman, who scored 17 tries for Richmond in 1997/98.
The award, handed out at the Hilton Metropole, comes just a day after Ashton attended the funeral of his father Kevin after he lost his battle against cancer.
And the flying winger said: "It's a massive honour for me to receive the award.
"The Premiership is a tough league and is full of top players and I was surprised and delighted to even be nominated.
"It's been a great season for me personally and for the Saints as a club. Making my England debut was memorable, as was playing in the Heineken Cup for the first time.
"The coaches have worked really hard with me to develop my game and I hope that I'm beginning to pay that back now.
"We've also got a great bunch of lads at the club. We've gelled together and done well to get where we have, and hopefully there will be more to come next season."
Ashton also won the Try of the Season award at Saints' End of Season Awards Dinner, which was picked up on his behalf by skipper Dylan Hartley.
Team-mate Soane Tonga'uiha, who won the Chronicle & Echo Supporters' Player of the Year and the Players' Player of the Year at Monday's ceremony at Franklin's Gardens, was runner-up behind Ashton in the Guinness Premiership Player of the Season.
Phil Dowson, who was second in the Chronicle & Echo Supporters' Player of the Year award, was also nominated for the Guinness Premiership gong, but couldn't make it a Saints clean sweep as Saracens skipper Ernst Joubert was third.
After being voted by Saints fans as the Chronicle & Echo Young Player of the Year for the second successive season, Courtney Lawes missed out on the Guinness Premiership Land Rover Discovery of the Season, which went to Leicester scrum-half Ben Youngs instead.
And despite picking up Saints' fourth trophy in his three seasons in charge by winning the LV= Cup and finishing second in the league in just their second campaign back in the top flight, Jim Mallinder missed out on the QBE Director of Rugby of the Season.
That was won by Leeds' Andy Key after they won their battle against relegation on a budget of just 2m.
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Friday 10 February 2012
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