Dear Club Members

A chilly weekend of cricket in the final warm-up games before the league season starts next Saturday.

Yesterday we had a quadruple-header against local (friendly) rivals Actonians. The 1s lost, posting 199-6 (Alex Kirkpatrick 59, Abhi Pandey 69) but Actonians chasing it down for 5 wickets with 10 balls to spare. The 2s won at Chiswick House. We made 187-8, a good recovery after early difficulties, Anurag Zende top-scoring with 41. He completed a brilliant all-round game taking 4-16 as Actonians fell 21 runs short.

The 3s lost, set 189-9 to chase we got to 171 all out, 18 runs short, despite an encouraging 60 for Rob Fernandes, finding his batting form to go with his 7 wickets last year. The 4s won a low-scoring game on a tricky pitch, restricting A’s to 112 (James Chaplin 4-29) and chased it down for 3, having been behind the rate but powered home by some big hitting by Sam Freeman. Steve Brookes carried his bat for 55*.

Today the Sunday side lost, but Sam Freeman completed a great personal weekend by making 76 as we posted 161 away at Beddington. Unfortunately we came up against a tasty bat for them and they got them for 1 down.

The juniors had a tough week, facing up against Ealing – always the strongest club in the area – in three different games and coming off second best, but there was an impressive 40 from Ibrahim Lalgie on Tuesday. Today the U15s beat South Hampstead, restricting them to 120 and chasing it down for 3 wickets, Yuv Malik scoring 42.

Thanks to everyone who played for the club this week. As I said, next week sees the start of the league season, and the first time we have to get 5 sides out this year. These games include the first 3s v 4s clash at Kings House, which should be really exciting. Please get your availability into Pitchero asap and make yourself available if you can so we can have strong sides to start the league season. Selection is on Tuesday evening after training, so please get your availability marked in plenty of time.

To end with some bittersweet news for the club, twice Young Player of the Year and last year’s Bowling Award winner Ben Birtles is leaving us to play Saturday cricket at Acton CC. Ben is playing 1st XI cricket for Cardiff University and needs to play at a higher notch of league cricket so has made the difficult decision to move on. Although this is very sad for us, we respect the choice Ben has made and he goes with our blessings and best wishes. Ben has come through our junior section, always representing the club with passion and commitment, and will continue to play for our MDL side this year. We like to feel we will always be his ‘real’ club and look forward to continuing to see him down at the ground. Meanwhile we congratulate Ben – and fellow first-teamer Leith Cowie – on their selection for the representative County League XI, games happening later in the summer. Well done both!

Thanks and have a good week.

Bernard