I’M sure most of the membership was cursing the weather on Saturday morning as a damp and dank days cricket awaited. It was actually a miracle that given the heavy and prolonged overnight rain in the 48 hours approaching game-day that we had any cricket at Marigolds at all. Only the hard work and dedication of Cliff Clark and Paul Fisk (who were at the ground before 9am on Saturday grafting to get the wickets ready (never mind the many hours they had put in during the week) ensured we saw any cricket.

Once the action started the First team produced their most impressive all round performance of the season to comfortably beat Ilford 2nd’s. Once again every bowler was on the money from the off as they strangled the run rate and took wickets at regular intervals to dismiss the visitors for 136 with wickets shared between Matt Hart (2), Rehman (2), Zabi (2), Waheed (1) and Callum Sykes (1).

Despite a couple of very odd LBW’s (thigh pad and inside edge of the bat the impact points) we comfortably chased the runs down with Rehman making a very impressive 72*, his third home half century in as many games at Marigolds this season. Zabi gave good support with an unbeaten 21 as we won by 6 wickets with 19 overs to spare.

The 2nd travelled to Oakfield Parks and batting first made a very handy 192 all out. Atif called up from the 3rd XI made 45, Asad Baig 26, Fas Javed 21 and Amir Farooq 20 as lots of players chipped in. 

In reply an incredibly tight spell from Tyler Dobson 0-15 (8) paved the way to ensuring Parks failed to chase down the runs despite a good start keeping wickets in hand. As the pressure of the run rate increased Amir and Shanmuga Priyan both took 3 wickets whilst Tom Smith-Hughes and James Forde keep things tight as Parks closed on 177-7 some 15 runs short.

The 3rd XI were involved in an even tighter game that went to the penultimate over. Parks would have been happy with their total of 202-4 in 40 overs with Paddy Matthews, Irfan Shoukat and Mustafa Zaman all going at less than 4 runs an over with excellent control.

In the conditions it was a magnificent effort led by Arshad Muhammed (98 not out) to successfully chase the runs down with Rizwan (41), Dip Basnett (23) and Haider Rasool (25*) making significant contributions. 

At around 5pm on Saturday the 4’s regular supporters (you know who you are!!) unanimously informed me that they were on the way to defeat. Chasing 157 (primarily down to very good spells from Harris Hamid 2-22 (8), Myles Baldock 2-24 (8) and Ben Seary 2-18 (7)) we were 50 odd for 5 and struggling. Step forward Ben Seary and Myles Baldock who put on a match winning century partnership with Ben unbeaten on 60 and Myles 32 not out to cap fantastic all round displays from the pair. (Cover photo taken just after the winning runs).

Ben Seary makes the headlines on a weekly basis it seems. Consistently excellent with bat and ball its clear he has made big strides this season and deserves all the praise in his direction as do the Fourth XI captaincy pair of Nathan McCarthy and Myles Baldock who despite only being 17 have not let the pressure of joint captaincy stop them from producing impactful personal performances whilst developing good young talent like Ben and others around his age. 

The 5th XI game fell victim to the weather on Friday nevertheless a marvellous day for the club – but never forget without the work of Cliff and Paul most of us would have been shopping on Saturday instead so any contributions to their tea and biscuit club would be greatly appreciated.