A weekend which ended on a high as the 1st XI beat Wimbledon in a tense Royal London Club Championship Group Semi-Final to take some of the sting out of defeat on Saturday against high-flying Ealing Cricket. Meanwhile, Richmond's 2's enjoyed a convincing win over previously unbeaten Ealing 2's, the 3's thrashed Highgate, the 4's suffered two late direct hit run-outs to lose by 2 runs and the 5's went down to Acton 4's.
The match against Wimbledon fluctuated from start to finish. The visitors chose to bat first and got off to a strong start, reaching 118 for 1 before Bhavesh Pankhania struck to dismiss the dangerous McConchie. After that some disciplined bowling chipped away and with one over to go, it looked like we would be chasing just over 200. However, an expensive final over set a target of 215. In reply Ben Compton and Will Phillips started brightly before both fell in the space of 3 balls. 40 for 2. Abhishek Jhunjhunwala and Robert Gibson steadied the ship taking us to 109 and keeping the rate hovering around 6 an over. But Gibson's departure followed by Vineeth Manjunath and Will Jenkins, left Richmond need 58 off 42 balls. Much rested on the shoulders of Abhishek and when he fell to an excellent boundary catch, the momentum seemed to be with Wimbledon. However skipper Greg King, playing positively, and Bhav reduced the target to a run a ball. Greg was then dismissed and this was immediately followed by Miles Dilworth dismissal run out attempting a difficult second. With two overs to go, Richmond required 16 off the last two overs. Bhav was dropped - a hard chance - and the next ball found the boundary. Game on. 6 were required off the last over and, after two well run two, Bhav finished the game in style. It was a super game and an excellent win. Richmond go through to play either Weybridge or East Molesey at Old Deer Park on Sunday 30th June.
At Ealing Richmond won the toss and started well, reaching 64 for no loss before Ealing's spinners took control. In truth, Richmond's batting was loose with the exception of Will Phillips who batted through the innings to be the last man out for 99. Ealing's target was 193 and at 42/3, the game was in the balance. However, the home side batted well and the game was lost by 5 wickets.
At Richmond, Max Read was star of the show with a superb 108 against a strong Ealing bowling side. Having set the visitors a target of 218, Richmond got off to a great start with Jack Timmins and Barnaby Cole taking early wickets. Whilst their middle order batted well, the skills of Sam Goodwill and Kshitij Desai, with 3 wickets each, ensured the victory by 35 runs.
At the Newman Ground, Christian Laws continued his fine form with the bat recording 131. There were good contributions from Tim Saxon, Chris Clubb and Huzefa Sajawal as Richmond posted a massive 294 for 2 off 45 overs. Highgate's batting, faced with such a large total, wilted and they were dismissed for 111. There were 3 wickets for Michael Wood, Skipper Charles Scholefield and Paddy Guest.
The 4's had a nail-biting game against Kenton 3's. Having restricted our opponents to 187/7, we inched out way to the target with just 4 needed off the last over, 9 down. Sadly with just 3 needed off 4 balls there was confusion and a direct hit run out saw us lose by just 2 runs.
The 5's dismissed Acton 4's for 191 but our batting never quite got going and we fell 15 runs short.