It was a weekend of record-breaking for Rickmansworth CC as Yash and Hervey put on an unbroken 167* for the 1st XI against Bushey, smashing a record that had stood since pre-war, set as long ago as June 1939. The previous record was 136. Sadly it was not in a winning cause as the two Nottingham Trent Uni pals got the team to within 3 runs of winning but ultimately fell just short. It was a remarkable innings by both players, and is still available on YouTube, but especially Harvey as his 115 came at better than a run a ball. Harvey now has the best batting average in the Division (67.75) and is just 5 runs short of Kashmiri of Holtwhites who Ricky play next. It was a herculean effort by both boys. Ricky have an impressive batting line-up and if they can start firing at the same time then the team would be top of the table for sure. Earlier Billy and Azeem took 2 wickets, whilst Pradeep took 3-20 at the end and restricted Bushey to 245. 45 extras however was the lowlight and again the team has work to do on stopping the wides (30) which was Bushey’s 3rd highest scorer.

In the 2nd team, Bobby made his own record reaching 4000 runs for the club with a nicely crafted 33 in support of Junaid (68) who has been in cracking form this year as well. Both are in the top10 run scorers in the Division. Taz had earlier returned to form with 34 as Ricky were 143/1 at one stage chasing 232 to win. What looked like a cake walk turned into the walk of shame for the middle order as wickets tumbled to leave Ricky 194/8. Despite the tails best efforts Ricky finished 17 runs short of victory on 215 all out. Earlier Vignesh, making his debut for Northwood, had scored 100 for Northwood with Bilal picking up 4 wickets to be the best Ricky bowler. Ricky amassed 18 points in defeat which is a good return. Northwood must be very happy to have secured Vignesh for their 2nd team – just Rickys bad luck he decided to play this one game for them.

Talking of records, Ricky 3rds wanted to avoid having played 6 and lost 6 and so it was a great day for their batters to turn up in good form. Chasing a score of 164 on the top pitch could have been daunting, but in fact it was a good recovery for Gaurav’s green and gold army as Berko looked like scoring more had it not been for the skipper and Lekshay sharing 5 wickets between them. Both have been our best bowlers this season. Nilesh steadied the ship with 40 runs and was ably supported by G-man with a jug-avoiding 49. When G was out the score was 151 as he and Keshav scored 79 in partnership to take Ricky to the brink of victory. It was a carefully constructed win as Ricky won with 12 balls to spare and just 3 wickets. After so many close-calls this season, the 3rds are up and running.

The 4th team were once again reaching for the record books, but this time trying to avoid their lowest score of the year, for the 2nd game in a row,. Sandridge scored 232/9 on a featherbed of a wicket, but Ricky made it look like a bunsen burner, with none of the top 5 making double-digits. Indeed neither did any of the bottom 5 as Manny was a lonely figure on 12 out of a total of 53. Manny desperately needs some batsmen to drop down to give him a hand.

Bobby Shome’s Glorious Fifths showed great spirit against an Aldenham team packed full of players that should not be playing Div 14 cricket. But that is the lowest league for you!. Rickys’ team of lads and lasses and Dads were once again the pride of Rickmansworth as father and daughter Mark and Isabel combined for 3 wickets between them. With the bat it was ‘back to the 1990’s’ for Bobby Shome (57 and Kevin Austin (60) as they took Ricky deep into 3 figures. The team subsided after they were out but we are assured no 3rd runs were harmed in the making of this partnership!

Every team now has at least 1 win and brighter days assuredly lie ahead