History was made on Sunday 5th May at Old Deer Park when 18 year old Vansh Jani hit what is, without doubt, the highest score by any Richmond player in the club's history. Our opponents in the 2nd Preliminary Round were Odiham & Greywell CC from Division 1 of the Hampshire Cricket League. They won the toss and elected to field but may have been regretting their decision as Greg King got Richmond off to a lightning start with 33 in 29 balls. After his departure with the score on 65 in the 7th over, Vansh took over scoring 225 out of the 285 runs that Richmond scored in the remainder of the innings. His 100 came up in 88 balls;his 150 in 106 balls; his 200 in 130 balls. After 40 overs, Vansh was undefeated on 244 off 143 balls, with 24 fours and 12 sixes. It was a mixture of some exquisite shots, some audacious ones and, quite frankly, some outrageous ones. He shared partnerships of 72 with Eddie Bruce, 81 with Jack Nelson and 132 with skipper for the day, Tanmay Thanawalla, who played it perfectly with 11 singles off 11 balls to ensure that Vansh retained the strike.

In reply, Odiham were always going to struggle to get anywhere near out total and so it proved as Eric Botha picked up his first wicket for Richmond in the 1st over. Barney Cole was also took an early wicket to leave the visitors 7 for 2. Jack Nelson nipped in with the 3rd. Ryan Quinn bowled well with no reward but then James Nelson with 3 wickets for 2 runs and the evergreen Kshitj Desai with 3 for 15 saw Odiham all out for 105 and a victory by 245 runs.

There will be far sterner tests ahead for this Richmond side when the League season begins next Saturday and they go on to play High Wycombe in the next round of the National next Sunday, but this was a memorable, historic day which will live in the record books for generations to come.