I’m going to start with annual subs. There are two days left to pay your subs at the reduced rate of £150 – it goes up to £180 on Wednesday. We currently have fewer people paid up than the number of players we put out on Saturday alone. This is not ok. The selection committee has been lenient thus far, but from Tuesday will take subs status into account at selection on Tuesday. Please pay up! You can get in touch in confidence if you have genuine difficulties – but barring that you need to pay your way.

There are also about 35 match fees outstanding. Chasing these up (and annual subs) is a job Mike Parkyn and I can really do without – we have plenty of more important things to be dealing with. Again – please pay on time and keep things simple.

Ok, moan over, onto cricket.

Saturday was very exciting and mostly successful, with 4 wins out of 5 (we’ve still never managed 5 out of 5, since starting our 5s last year.)

The 1s were chasing a mammoth 289 to beat Ealing Hanwellians. There were attacking 70s from both Orlando Ames-Lewis and Alex Kirkpatrick but we came into the last over needing 19 to win with the last pair at the crease: beyond us surely? No, David Boothroyd hadn’t got that memo and hit the required 19 off 4 balls and we won with 2 to spare! Let’s hope this kick-starts the 1s campaign.

The 2s were on the other end of a similar nerve-wracker. They’d been in early trouble batting first against K&C but recovered thanks to 69 (nice) by Seb Eyre and more runs for Joe Gilmour, making 52 on his 2s debut. Unfortunately it wasn’t quite enough, with K&C squeezing home with 8 balls to spare.

The 3s bowled out Ealing for 129, Will Whitehead taking 6. Chris Morris made 44 in reply and we won despite a mini-wobble.

The 4s bowled out Teddington for 144, 5 wickets for Raffi Mohammed. Our reply was led by Azam Malik with 58 as we made them for 3 down with 20 overs to spare.

The 5s also won comfortably in the end. A much better batting display (after last week’s 53 all out) saw us post 202. We were led by a pair of jug-avoiders – Johaan Anaokar-Sorensen 49 and your Chairman with 48) before a sparkling last few overs saw 23* to Ben Hurtig-Isaac and 29* to skipper Dave Phillips including an amazing six over extra-cover (‘into the wind’ according to the Dog). Trailfinders reached 69-2 before collapsing for 84 all out, George Wilson 5-19.

The Sunday side lost with no notable performances.

Earlier in the week the Ladies played their first competitive match and won comfortably. Congratulations to Leonora Yorath and the whole team, and their coach Prince. (See picture.)

The juniors had another busy week, the highlight of which was another win for the U11s against Shepherds Bush on Wednesday, Flash Cawkwell picking up 5 wickets and yet more runs for the prodigious Kian Suri. We also hosted the junior All Stars and Dynamos on Friday night as usual – thanks to everyone who came down to help either on Friday or Sunday morning with the juniors, it really helps to spread the burden.

Thanks to everyone who has represented the club this weekend. We have our usual 5 league games next Saturday as well as two games on Sunday, home to Southwark Park and away at Teddington. Please get your availabilities in asap, and definitely before 6pm on Tuesday.

Thanks and have a great Jubilee week.
Bernard