The 1st XI travelled to the picturesque Chelmer Park and got smashed. After being put into bat, we lasted less than 26 overs. Adeel top scored with 45 but that was as good as it got. Any hope of a repeat of our bowling heroics from last week were quickly raised as Billy took 2 early wickets but it wasn’t to be and the home side cruised to their target in the 28th over.

The 2s welcomed Chelmsford at home and won a last ball thriller. Lord Luke of Hornchurch led the way with 76 and Mylo weighed in with 38 as we set the visitors a chase of 203. Freddie B took 2 wickets and Biffo 4-30 as the game came down to the last ball. Needing 2 to win, Lord Luke ran out the Chelmsford batter to secure the win by the narrowest of margins.

The 3rd XI hosted Belhus at Cromer and went down by 80 runs. Bowling first, Nauman took 3-44 whilst the other 5 bowlers shared the wickets as we bowled Belhus out for 229. Azian got the chase off to a good start with 41 but, apart from Nauman (31), no one else really got going and we were all out for 149.

The 4s finally played against Westcliff-on-Sea but were on the wrong end of an 8 wicket defeat. Batting first, Chan’s 91 and good knocks from Pete Norris (41) and Imran Khan (36) saw us reach 254 all out. However, the Westcliff openers smashed the ball to all parts as they raced to their target in 35.4 overs. Chan took 2 wickets but it was in vain.

The 5th XI hosted Hutton and secured a record breaking 203 run win. Gary Stanley’s unbeaten 208 was remarkably the club’s 4th double century of the season. It was also his first ever hundred! Farquhar was denied his first ever 100 when he missed a full toss whilst on 98 but he did record his highest ever score for the club. The 3rd wicket partnership was 255, a club record whilst our 366/5 was a team record. In reply, Hutton were never likely to get close to the target and we bowled them out for 163. Thomas Ansell (3-32) was the pick of the bowlers whilst Dougie’s wicket means he is just 2 away from 1200 victims for the club. Here’s hoping he can get them next week.

Overall, the weekend mirrored our whole season with some brilliant performances amongst some distinctly average ones.