eague Saturday 5 and Richmond's least successful return of what has been an excellent season so far. There were comprehensive wins by the 1's and 4's but disappointing defeats for the 2's and 3's.
The 1's invited Shepherds Bush to bat first at Old Deer Park and took 3 early wickets through David Burton and Jack Timmins to leave the Bush 18 for 3. They recovered slowly losing their 4th wicket on 60 and their 5th on 96 as the spin of Adam London and Abhishek Jhunjhunwala, as well as Matthew Alexander James Dickinson's accurate medium pace, applied the brakes. However a series of dropped catches allowed Otto-Mian to score 58 and lead a modest recovery. Eventually the visitors completed their 50 overs with 184 for 9, possibly 30 or 40 more than they should have got. Daniel Stanley and Greg King opened up and with 30 on the board after 4 overs, the ploy seemed to be working. But both were dismissed on that score, Adam followed with the score on 49 and potentially Richmond were under pressure. That was relieved with consummate ease by Abhi and Will Sobczak who calmly dismantled the Bush bowling. Their unbeaten partnership was worth 136 as we chased down the target with 13.4 overs to spare. The victory leaves Richmond joint top with Hampstead who visit ODP in two weeks time. The 1's travel to 3rd placed North Middlesex next Saturday for the first 120 over game of the season.
The 2's were at North Midd yesterday to take on the league's leaders and were well-beaten. The hosts batted first and scored 257 for 5 off their 45 overs. In reply, the 2's never recovered from losing most of the top order in the 3rd over (4 wickets falling) and only Kieran Evans with 31 recorded any sort of score. The 3's also had high hopes of recording another victory as they welcomed Osterley to the Newman Cricket Ground. We invited the visitors to bat and Steven Deakin 6 wickets for 36 runs seemed to have done the job as Osterley were bowled out for 161. In reply James Arnold and Zain Bhaktar put on 78 for the first wicket but after both were dismissed, Richmond's batting crumbled and we were bowled out for 135. Fayed Fazaldin's 22 the only other score in double figures. The 4's travelled to Wembley and won by 9 wickets. Wembley's 3rds were bowled out for 126 - Anirudh Muraly picking up 4 wickets on his return to Richmond colours this season. Huzefa Sajawal then smashed 71 and Paddy Guest 40 to see Richmond home after just 15.1 overs. The 5's League match was conceded by Stanmore so the 5's had a friendly against Harrow Town which they lost.