Our 2026 ‘A’ campaign started with an away day at Leverstock Green.

We batted first, with Aarav and Akein looking to continue where they left off last season. Leverstock’s opening attack posed some questions with testing lengths, but once they were seen off, both our openers started to establish themselves. Thus, it was a shame the partnership ended with Akein falling following a mid wicket mix up. That would be the only wicket we would lose in our innings, as our boys established a stranglehold on the game. Aarav and Harry acclimatised to the pitch conditions and with confidence growing so did the run rate. Harry in particular breached the boundary regularly, 8 times in fact, and he was first to retire with an excellent 40* from 32 balls. He was soon followed by (yet) another retirement for Aarav 40* from 44 (3 fours, 1 six). A rebuild was expected, however Patrick and debutant Sahas simply maintained the good work and raised it some more. With Leverstock having few answers, both boys cashed in, Patrick finished with 31* from 16 (6 fours) and Sahas 28* from 14 (5 fours), an imposing 164-1 the end total. Given the relatively sluggish outfield this was an exceptional effort for a first outing of the year.

Pleasingly we backed it up with a tidy bowling display and some efficient and alert fielding, which was all the more impressive given the plunging temperature, having lost the April sun for the day. The result never looked in doubt with the opposition reaching 107-4 by the close. The pick of the bowlers, as it turned out were the wicket takers. Oliver (3-0-12-2) managed to find appreciable swing and was rewarded with 2 wickets, both clean bowled. Aryan bowled with perfect control and he could have easily taken more wickets, as it was, he finished with figures of 3-0-7-1, his wicket courtesy of a catch from Dylan. Aryan and Issa combined for the other wicket to fall, a run out.

A top notch performance and a good benchmark to take forward into future games. Well done all!

M.O.M. This could easily have been awarded to half a dozen of the boys. Sahas had a brilliant debut, however this week, Harry was the catalyst for our domination in this game, so it is he who claims the prize