Five Star Saturday with wins for everyone

Whilst the 1st team were grinding out a win against Hemel Hempstead the rest of the teams were having an amazing day out with wins across the board.

The 2nd team were looking for a first win in 5 games and were able to bowl first in friendly conditions against WGC III. As usual WGC had players dropping down who had played higher up and so it was great to see Fizzy return to form with 4-27 including the prize wicket of skipper Dan Byford for a duck to a great catch by Fred Maggi behind the stumps. Smithy swept up the tail with 3-4 and Ricky had to chase 123 to win.

There were nerves in the camp as wickets started to tumble, including Bobby with a fractured hand! Now out for at least 4 weeks. Majid (15) and Stefan (13) kept Ali Nawaz company for a while and then Matt Greenland with 13 also, but it was ultimately a one-man performance by Ali as he scored 64 not out to see the team home with overs to spare.

The 3rd team were similarly grateful to Douggy (Andrew Dalgleish) who scored a composed 51 on a sticky dog at KGV, whose partner in crime was Waqqas Memon with 34. A partnership over 70 for the 3rd wicket with extras also helping out with a whopping 43 (21 byes and 15 wides). The lower middle order contributed a few and 171/7 was a good score and also gave away just 7 points.

After an opening stand of 30, Bushey didn’t offer anything more as a disciplined and well-executed plan by Rickmansworth went as well as expected. The quicks kept the score down before Ronesh went to work, taking 5-12 in 8 overs of slow left arm. 8 batters didn’t score more than 8, and extras were just 15 as Bushey capitulated for 93.

The 4th team started off like a train, scoring at 6 an over before Sohail was out for 27 and then Raz for 3. Anuj (17) and Snehal (29) racked up a few and although no other batsmen went past 14, the small contributions all added up to 150. After being 61/1, this was perhaps a little light.

Pinner 3rds had started the day in 3rd place and showed why they were proper contenders for promotion as they recovered well with a 50 partnership for the 7th wicket. Needing just 20 with 4 wickets in hand, the bowlers came to the rescue (Snehal 5-37) and Chandru (3-17) as Pinner collapsed to 142 all out and lost by just 8 runs.

Thanks to the generosity of OMT, Ricky had a 5th team opponent late on Friday night and so various old players were dragged to a game at Merchant Taylors on Saturday afternoon. Rizzy Ahmed pushed for a place in the league teams with 3-24 and he later knocked up 50 with the bat. 14 year old Ben Lewzey and Matt Iveson (who first played for the club as a teenager back in 1991) took 2 wickets each and Group Captain Andy Milner took 1 wicket as OMT were bowled out for 158. It must have been a good track with no byes!

Graham and Mark opened the batting but could only muster 5 between them (105 less than their combined ages!). Callum scored 13, supporting Rizzy and 14 year old Eshan with 19 helped get Rizzy to a retirement at 50. The GP Andy Milner smote the ball to all parts for a cultured 28 and on to victory by 5 wickets.

And that was it for another Super 5 Star Saturday. Let’s do it all again.