A more successful day as League Saturday 7 saw wins for the 1's and 2's, winning draws for the 3's and 5's and a narrow defeat for the 4's.
The 1's travelled to Hampstead without 3 regular players including captain Greg King and so Will Phillips took over the captaincy. He lost the toss and was asked to bat first. Promoting Bhavesh Pankhania to open with him, Will set about the Hampstead bowling with relish and a superb partnership of 181 ensued. Just 6 short of a maiden League century, Bhav tickled one down the leg side and then Will also missed out on a ton by being caught on the boundary for 96. Ben Compton and Abhishek Jhunjhunwala continued to apply the pressure, scoring freely as Richmond approached the halfway stage of the game. Hampstead had bowled their overs quickly enough to give Richmond the chance to push on past 60 over and top 300 before declaring on 303-5 after 64.
Hampstead's openers got off to a fast start bringing up the first 100 in 16 overs without losing a wicket. However, shortly before tea Abhi struck and the hosts went into the break on 109 for 1. After the interval, Richmond's spinners took control. Abhi took the 2nd wicket with the score on 119 and then he and Abdullah ran through the Hampstead middle order to leave the home side 138 for 8. Some lusty hitting took Hampstead to 179 before Abdullah wrapped up the innings with 2 in 2 balls. A 12 point win puts the defending champions in 4th place, 19 points behind North Middlesex, 14 behind Teddington and 10 behind Ealing.
Special mention should be made of Alex Hall who was called back into the 1's to keep wicket, 8 years after his last 1st XI League appearance. Alex showed all of his natural ability with the gloves in an assured display.
The 2's are in second place, 3 points behind Shepherds Bush, following their 5th successive win, this time over Highgate at Old Deer Park. Richmond chose to bowl first and the bowlers did not disappoint. Wickets were shared around but it was Kshitij Desai 4 for 16 which wrapped up the visitors' innings for 159. In reply, the 2's got over the early dismissal of Stephen Bail, and had progressed to 64 for 1 before some rash shots saw 3 wickets fall quickly. However KD, in the company of Miles Dilworth, got the innings back on keel and even though Miles was dismissed with 14 to win, Will Patterson hit two super boundaries before KD finished things off with a 4 and a 6.
Dan Fryer was the star of the show at the Newman, scoring 131 out of 245 for 6 in 46 overs. Phil Allen and Sumit Chourasia bowled extremely well to take early wickets but Acton could not be dismissed despite skipper Charles Scholefield trying everything to tempt them into pursuing the target. The visitors finished on 205 for 7 to give Richmon a winning draw. The 3's remain in 6th place but are only 9 points off second.
The 4's played on a difficult pitch against Stanmore 3's and were dismissed for just 85. Not for the first time this season, captain Robin Held was the only Richmond batsman to show any resistance with 33. With 19 extras, the remainder of Richmond's batsmen combined equalled the captain's score. Hamza Sajawal fought back with the ball taking 5 for 26 but Stanmore got over the line 7 down. The defeat leaves the 4's in 9th place.
The 5's lost the toss against Middlesex Tamils' 4's who were dismissed for 202 off 50 overs. Richmond had 42 overs back and scored 172 for 8 to take the 4 points.
Today sees the start of the MDL season with a strong Richmond side taking on Teddington at Old Deer Park.