The 1s traveled to Loughton and left with 25 points after a 117-run victory and extended their lead at the top to 32 points in the process. Batting first, Muz and JP got us off to a flyer before Les and CTM put on 108 for the 2nd wicket. Both men reached fifty as the Loughton bowling was put to the sword. Both men fell short of a 100 but Adeel’s late onslaught (53 off 45 balls) propelled us to 293/5 declared. Billy struck with the ball twice early as the home side struggle to 20/2. That was soon 90/4 with Billy taking all 4 wickets. The home side tried to shut up shop but Dilly took yet another 5 wicket haul, his 5-49 moves him onto 40 league wickets for the season. Wogan then wrapped up the win with the final wicket as we won our 9th game of the season.

The 2s continued their promotion push with a 25 point haul at home to Loughton. After being asked to bat first, Azian top scored with 49 and Ossy 47 as we posted 203/9 off our 50 overs. In reply, Freddie took 4 early wickets as we reduced the visitors to 76/4. The score than became 119/7 as Freddie took another and Nauman nabbed a brace. The win looked certain at this stage but the Loughton tail wagged and the game went to the wire. Nauman removed the dangerous Shareef before Freddie grabbed a 6th when Nauman took a fantastic catch. With just 12 runs to win, Nauman bowled Anwar to secure a vital win. The points sees the 2nd XI sit at the top of the tree with a 19 point lead over Old Parks; whom we visit this weekend.

The 3rd XI won at home to Chingford after some heroics with the bat from Pierre. After being asked to bat first, we were soon in trouble at 55/4. Old heads Alex and Gary then staged a mini recovery before Pierre smashed the ball to all parts on his way to an unbeaten 85* off 41 balls. His innings contained 11x4s and 5 maximos. He was ably supported by Abhi; who’s 33* helped us to 241/8 off our allotted overs. The Chingford reply looked on course to chase the target when they reached 113/1. However, we continued to take regular wickets and the game looked set to have a tense finish. 192/6 soon became 202/9 as Aman Singh took 5/56 and with Pierre and Abhi also taking 2 wickets each, the visitors still need 39 when the last man walked to the crease. Palmer thought he had won the game with a smart stumping but 2 balls later, the win was secured when Aman took his 5th and with it, a nice 25 points.

Thanks to Chingford, the whole match can be relived here https://youtu.be/Ppze6jqoz9k

The 4s traveled to Hutton, hoping to build on their recent good run of form but were left after just falling short of forcing a win. Batting first, Robin and Bhav both got into the 30s before youngster Jaden hit an entertaining 62 to see us to 248/8 off our 45 overs. The home side were soon up against it as James Martin, Zain Moghul took wickets. However the evergreen Graham Spooner held firm but fell just short of a century. Mo Khan took 4/76 but we were unable to take the last 2 wickets as Hutton ended up on 222/8.

The 5s romped to victory in their game against Brentwood; winning by 8 wickets in a game that only last 37 overs. After being put into bat, the visitors were blown away by the youthful HCC bowling attack. Krish Kumar, making his senior debut, recorded excellent figures of 5-3-5-1 whilst the Patel brothers, Toshan and Rikhil, returned career best figures of 4-16 and 3-15 as Brentwood were rolled over for 52. The score could have been even lower had it not been for the 20 extras that were given away. In reply, we let the youth bat and Billy Whitlock’s quickfire 25 saw us home in 14 overs.

The 6s made the short trip to Hackney Marshes to play Stoke Newington but were well beaten. The home side batted first and made 238/5 from their 40 overs. We used 11 bowlers and Tony Bowles took his first ever HCC wicket. Our batting effort only saw 2 batters reach double figures as we could only muster 100 all out.