After a disappointing performance against Loughton the previous weekend, the 1 st XI visited Billericay in an important promotion clash. Skipper Alan Ison lost the toss on one of hottest days of the year as he was put into field. Fresh from his half-century for Essex in the Royal London One Day Cup, Billericay overseas batsman Grant Roelofsen continued his superb form with a brilliant 120 off 79 balls. Shafiq Rahman was the man to claim the big scalp and he also claimed 3 more to finish with impressive figures of 4 for 32 off 10. Billericay eventually finished on 298 in their 50 overs.
In reply, only Jon-Jon Smuts scored any runs off note. The South African batsman hit his 8th half-century of the league season with a well-made 66. Billericay won the fixture by 119 runs.

At Upminster Park, the 2nd XI played Brentwood in one of the most high-scoring games ever seen at the ground. Upminster won the toss and elected to bat first and the top-order quickly got the innings going. Tom Daniels fell early, but Josh Lamont and Aki Rahman (66) put on 104 for the 2nd wicket. Opening batsman Lamont smashed his way to his 3rd league ton of the season, an innings full of power and skill. Once he departed, the run scoring didn’t stop as Ollie White took his turn to dominate the Brentwood bowlers. After getting so close on many occasions, Ollie finally made his maiden century and did it at a 185 strike rate. Upminster finished on 370 in their 45 overs.
Brentwood started their reply well as they scored 74 runs off the 12 over powerplay. The
introduction of the captain Nicky Ison halted their progress, as the off-spinner picked up 3 wickets in this first 5 overs. The Brentwood batsman kept going for it though and eventually found themselves needing 91 off the last 10. Gareth Harley played the innings that got them almost to the total as he smoked 62 off 33 balls, including 5 maximums, but when John Curtis got him caught on the line by Wyatt, it looked like it was almost over. Richard Horsewill (85) almost got his team home in the last over but the skipper has the final say when he bowled him with 2 balls to go. Upminster eventually winning by 11 runs in a classic.

The 3rd XI kept up the pressure on Harlow in the 3rd XI Premier Division with a 7 wicket victory over Harold Wood. Fielding first in the sweltering heat, the Upminster bowlers did well to keep Harold Wood to 242/9 off their 45 overs. Kevin Roome the pick of the bowlers as he added 3 more wickets to his thousand wicket collection. Skipper Dan Simpson, once again lead from the front in reply as he scored his 3rd league ton of the season with an almost run a ball 105. Sam Twine continued his fine form with the bat as he partnered Dan with an excellent 85*.

Ian Munn’s 4th XI picked up an important and excellent win against Wanstead and Snaresbrook on Saturday. Wanstead batted first and were impressively bowled out for 185 at Nutter Lane. Ant Limn lead the attack as the mercurial spinner finished with superb figures of 4/23. In the chase, Ian Munn (46) and Nathan Brown (68) got the innings off to an excellent start with a 125 run partnership. After a mini flutter of wickets, Upminster chased down the total 6 down in 35 overs.

Upminster 5th XI fell to a 7 wicket defeat against Old Brentwood 3rd XI. The 5th XI batted first and notched up 179/9 in 40 overs, Old Brentwood chased down pretty easily with the loss of 3 wickets.

The 6th XI played local neighbours Ardleigh Green and Havering Atte-Bower 4th XI and came up against a batsman who had a proper day out. Coming in at 3, Harish Harish smashed an unbelievable 213* off 127 balls. A tough afternoon for the Upminster bowlers as AGHAB finished on 340/6.
Another skipper lead from the front this weekend as Ray Calder scored 66 opening the batting. He wasn’t given too much support as Upminster were bowled out for 170.