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Two titles round off a satisfying season
Both the 3rd XI and the 5th XI win their devision whilst the 2's miss out by 1 point as the MCCL season comes to an end.
And so after 18 weeks, the Middlesex County Cricket League has come to an end and, for Richmond, it has been a memorable season. The 3's and 5's are champions of their respective divisions. The 2's, having been promoted last year, came within a whisker of winning their league. Meanwhile the 1's finished in a very comfortable 6th place in the Premier, more than 30 points above the relegation zone. Finally the 4's, despite having the most challenging season, avoided relegation by virtue of a better head to head record against Hampstead 4's. As a consequence, our 3's, 4's and 5's will play in the top three divisions of the League's Third Tier making us the highest ranked club in the county's League structure.
The 1's were washed out completely on Saturday meaning that we did not get to play the Premier League's worst side at any stage this season. It is not unreasonable to say that had we played both games this side would have topped 100 points in its first season back in the Premier League.
At Old Deer Park, the 2's did play against Osterley. Despite hearing early on that Teddington had defeated Harrow Town to ensure that they won the title, Zain's side recorded a very comprehensive win to finish the season with 11 wins and 126 points. Richmond chose to bowl first. There were two early wickets for Arun Bhasin before stands of 91 and 39 took the visitors to 153 for 3. However, Will Knowles, Kyle Seth and Nikhil Malik each took two wickets as Osterley were dismissed for 199 off 42.5 overs. Nikhil and Zak Pooley, both 17 years old, set about the chase in fine fashion. Their opening stand of 110 in 15 overs ended after a sparkling 52 from Nikhil. At that point Zak picked up the tempo, first with Tom Spearman,then KD and finally Nathan Parkin to see us home in 28.3 overs. Zak finished on 80 not out to complete an excellent final third of the League season with 329 runs in his last 6 league innings at an average of 109.67.
Meanwhile it was another teenager Josh Dudley who carried the 3rd XI over the line against Barnes to secure the 3rd XI premier league title. On a sticky pitch at Barn Elms, Barnes were dismissed for 149, Aadil Sadiq taking 4 for 28, Hugo Knowles and Jean Fourie both picking up two. In reply, skipper Hamza Sajawal 's 28 gave us a start but the loss of 3 wickets meant that there was work to do. However Josh with 54 not out more than ably assisted by Bharat Manimaran with 34 not out saw us home as Champions!
The 4's lost by 8 wickets against Ealing 3's and did not score a losing bonus point. This meant that after both Hampstead 4's and Highgate 3's won, there were three sides on 64 points with all having won the same number of games. However, we stay up through the head to head rules.
This of course means that not only did our 5th XI win Division 3 of the Third Tier, but they can also be promoted to Division 2 as Champions. The 5's had a convincing 5 wicket win over Bessborough 3's who were dismissed for 180. Zakrya Khan led the way with the ball taking 5 for 34. Rohit Thakkor smashed 88 not out as Ali Raza's side reached their target to win the Division with 9 wins and 114 points.
There have been many highlights, some low ones but all in all a good season for the Club. And hopefully one more to go when our Boys Under 13's play Dorridge CC on the Nursery Ground at Lord's next Saturday afternoon (14th September).