Another successful week of Cricket at Park Road was capped with fine performances by the ‘odd’ teams at Rickmansworth, the 1st, 3rd and 5th XI’s – with the 1’s and 3’s keeping their unbeaten start to the season intact.

There were also good wins for the u9, u10, u11 (also unbeaten), u13, u14 and u11 girls during the week.

Back to Saturday and let’s start at the top of tree, where Ricky took on Bushey looking for a revenge win after last years high-jinks. Raunak (34) and Rameez (28) gave Ricky the kind of start we always need but were pegged back loosing Vivek for a duck. At 93/2 Ricky looked to be heading for 240+, but the Bushey bowlers stuck to their lines and kept getting wickets. When Matt was out for a wonderfully crafted 40, we were 137 for 6 and maybe 170 was now the target. But Billy digs in like a Boycott of old and values his wicket above everything else. His 29 enabled the tail to edge it’s way to a par 200. Little did we all know, this was just the beginning of ‘Billy’s game’.

Ricky have such a choice of bowlers and Cambridge Uni bowler Raunak grabbed 2 quick ones at the top of the order thanks to some smart catches by Rameez and Harvey. Then 2 run-outs by Angus and Rameez put Bushey in trouble at 43/4. Aamir was circumspect but missed a straight one from Jaspreet (great to see the firework back in action) and then Alam and Asif dug in to try and reach 100 off 30 overs. As is often the case, captain fantastic Harvey was needed to break the partnership with a fine edge to Hadi and then in another inspirational move he brought on Billy, who had by now been warming up for 30 overs! A wicket with his second ball heralded the end for Bushey as he grabbed 4-14 in 31 balls to also take the M0TM award. Victory puts Ricky into joint 2nd in the table.

In the 2nd XI game it was heartbreak for Ricky as they were an agonising 2 runs short of victory. Yash and Keshav had shared the bulk of the wickets to dismiss Northwood for just 179. Yash 4-45 and Keshav 4-17. What a revelation young Keshav is proving to be in 2026. So the scene was set, but rather spoiled as the Northwood captain, who was umpiring due to an injury, gave out Stefan first ball lbw. Everyone knows you get a dog’s chance first ball of the innings. At 60/5 it looked like Ricky were finished but Yash played superbly for another half-century (58) and with Boby (42) batting down the order due to illness, put Ricky back on track. Bev scored 27 but when these 3 were gone it was left to Keshav and Shiv to try in vain to repeat their heroics of last week. But Shiv was bowled with 14 overs to go to leave Ricky agonisingly short of a tie by 1 run.

The 3rd XI game will perhaps be known as “that Nitesh Raj game” as he had a hand in both innings. Firstly when OECC were 110/3 he started to bowl and took a handsome 4-33 to restrict the middle order and tail to just 80 more. Then with bat in hand he smashed 60 when Ricky were wobbling on 90/5 to take the team comfortably home. Earlier Nilesh had avoided a jug on 49 and G-man was back to his opening spot scoring 32. Considering the team has not hit 2nd gear yet, 2 wins out of two is a great return and sit top of the table.

The 4th XI followed up victory last week with a chastening defeat this week against local rivals Chorleywood. It was hard going on a damp top wicket and with Nayan, Neil, Pras and Nassar scoring 2 runs between them in 18 balls the lower middle order lost its way and 77/5 became 92 all out. With such a low target to defend Ricky bowled tightly but were always up against the 8-ball and the Wood coasted to their target with 12 overs in hand.

The 5th XI posted a maiden victory in 2026 thanks to some exceptionally tight bowling against a Redbourn team who didn’t seem to want to break the shackles at any point. Future-star Vikram bowled 5 overs for just 2 runs, whilst his Dad bowled 6 overs for 7 runs. Redbourn only scored 111 off the bat in 40 overs (240 balls) and still had 4 wickets in hand. A slight blip in the middle order reply couldn’t halt the Ricky juggernaught with Graham (43) anchoring the innings and Naeem (38) pressing the accelerator. Ricky reached the required total with 8 overs to spare.

And so another week ends and it’s onto week 3 with the 1st and 2nds both playing Hemel and Northwood, Chipperfield and Langlebury making it local rivals for all teams.