An outstanding and emphatic Saturday 5 of the 2016 League season saw all 5 Richmond sides win convincingly. The 1's travelled to defending champions, Hampstead, and quite simply demolished them. Ryan Higgins and David Burton ripped through Hampstead's batting who slumped from 20/0 in the 4th over to 42/8 before the first 20 overs was up. A slight 9th wicket stand took the score to 67 before Abhishek Jhunjhunwala picked up the last two wickets and leave the hosts all out for 72. Higgins and James Irvine-Fortescue made light work of the chase, knocking the required 73 runs off in 10.1 overs.
The 2's owed much to skipper Simon Elliott half-century and the support of Charles Scholefield for the 10th wicket go post a score 187, after the middle order failed to capitalise on a good start. However the bowlers soon made amends with Barnaby Cole picking up two early wickets to leave Eastcote 33/4. A 5th wicket partnership seemed to threaten but it was Scholefield who turned things around, this time with ball, and Eastcote crumbled to 114 all out.
The 3's welcomed Harrow St Mary's to the Newman Cricket Ground by posting a massive 299 for 6, the returning Greg King leading the way with 90, sharing an opening stand of 170 with Matt Swann. The visitors were dismissed for just 108.
The 3'b trounced Stanmore 3's who they bowled out for just 10o, a score which they knocked off for the loss of just 2 wickets. The 5's had an equally emphatic win against Finchley 4, winning by 6 wickets. Imran Baccarat's 5 for 6 proving to be the match-winning spell. So all in all a good day.
As far as league tables are concerned, after the initial round of 5 limited over games, all 4 Middlesex league sides are in touch with the top places to some degree and will be looking forward to the next run of matches. The League tables for the top 4 sides can be found here : http://www.middlesexccl.com/Results.asp…