It was a disappointing weekend for Upminster, both in terms of the weather and results, as the 1st XI suffered a narrow defeat at Old Southendians to exit the Dukes Essex League Cup on Saturday. On a miserable afternoon at Garon Park, Upminster were asked to bat first, and after a solid start lost two quick wickets to fall to 29-2. Mo Ahmad and Kiran Kullar led a recovery as Upminster reached 75-2, but four wickets then fell for 22 runs to leave Pulkit Gupta’s side in trouble. However, Nehal Butt and Shaffiq Rahman then teamed up in an excellent stand to get Upminster back into the game. Butt combined his natural attacking instincts with real determination to make 40 from 53 balls while Rahman, a stalwart of the 1st XI for more than 20 years, made yet another half century, this one from 71 balls. Their stand of 92 meant that although Upminster lost their last four wickets for 26 runs, they did at least have a challenging score of 215 to try and defend.

Max Carter-Miller struck early in the Old Boys’ chase, and Butt continued his excellent afternoon with an early wicket to leave the home side 16-2, before in a near mirror image of the first innings, Southendians recovered somewhat to reach 67-2. Jamie Green, making his competitive debut for the 1st XI, then produced an excellent burst with the ball to pick up two wickets, and with Rahman reminding everyone of his bowling as well as batting skills, Upminster were maybe slight favourites with the score at 122-5. Max Craddock and Dylan Batt combined to inch the home side forward with a stand of 39 before the skipper removed Craddock, his counterpart for 45, but Batt and Matthew Austin moved the score to 180-6 before the rain returned after 38 overs. With the weather not relenting the DL sheets were downloaded and when play was officially abandoned it was confirmed that Southendians had passed the required adjusted target of 173 and so advanced to the next round. Despite the defeat Gupta will be happy with his team’s performance in many ways, and will be especially pleased by the performances of a number of his young players. He will now take his side to South Woodford for a friendly encounter this Saturday (4th May).

The heavy rain meant the friendly fixture between the two clubs’ 2nd XIs at Upminster Park was abandoned before a ball was bowled, but the 5th XI did get in an excellent game at Chignal. Thomas Cargill showed excellent patience and concentration to make 35 for Upminster, before 14 year old Ollie Clarke made a brilliant unbeaten 52, an innings which included two maximums. After Clarke retired Chignal fought-back, and Upminster were eventually dismissed for 180. Clarke then struck with the ball in the first over of the Chignal reply, but 41 from skipper Kushank Jain put the home side on top. Cargill then threatened to run through the Chignal batting with a remarkable spell of 3-1 from three overs, but an unbeaten 36 from Shiv Moolimani saw his side to a three wicket win with 14 balls to spare. Thank you to Chignal for hosting us and for an excellent game.

Unfortunately the bad weather was even worse on Saturday evening and Sunday morning, and so both the Women’s 1st XI game against Hutton and the Women’s 2nd XI game at Billericay were abandoned without a ball being bowled.