
A busy Sunday afternoon for the club turned into a very successful one, especially for our women's sides.
At Overton Drive the Women's 2nd XI put in their best performance of the season to beat Wanstead & Snaresbrook and move clear of the relegation zone in Division Two of the EWPL. It was Wanstead who decided to bat first having won the toss, but they may have been regretting that decision 90 minutes later after a fine display from Upminster's attack. All six bowlers used picked up a wicket with Mila Price, Angela Green, Priya Somani and Imogen Croker all grabbing two apiece. Victoria Darbyshire and Helen Quinlan both passed 20 to give Wanstead some hope but their total of 72 all out never looked like it would be enough. Upminster fell to 13-2 in reply and looked like they may be in trouble themselves but sisters Alex Semon and Catherine Johnson held their nerve as they rebuilt and then accelerated towards the finish. Semon struck one huge maximum on her way to 29 not out while Johnson ended unbeaten on 27 as the visitors won by eight wickets.
Meanwhile at Springfield the Women's Softball Side were taking part in Finals Day of the Essex Softball Series and they would eventually go on to finish in third place. 44 teams started the competition back in May and 11 remained for Finals Day with Upminster then topping their early afternoon group to move into the top seeded group for the late afternoon play offs. Unfortunately they suffered two narrow defeats to Wickford and Hadleigh & Thundersley meaning they ended up in third position with Hadleigh taking the title.
The Sunday League XI saw their title hopes dented with a loss to Goresbrook at Coopers. Having chosen to bat first Upminster found themselves in huge trouble as they fell to 98-8, despite 36 from Zoran Suneel, with Amir Javed claiming 3-21 and Pawanpreet Singh taking 4-21. However, with an early finish looming Emma Black and Lewis Munn turned things around with a brilliant ninth wicket partnership. The pair added 96 with Black making exactly 50 and Munn contributing 43 before the home side were bowled out for 196. Shrey Shah struck with the first ball of the Goresbrook reply to give Upminster hope of a victory but Joe Barwick (22) and Ted Ivory (64) put their side in charge with an excellent second wicket partnership before both men fell to the spin of Munn. Jack Gibson and Lee Jones were both in good form for Goresbrook though, and they helped see their side to an important six wicket win.
The junior highlight of the day came at Upminster Park where the U13 Ultras stormed to a 10 wicket win over Copdock & Old Ipswichian in the regional play off of the National Cup. Upminster bowled out the visitors for just 53 before racing to victory in just over eight overs. The side now move on to the Regional Finals Day which will be held on 3rd August at Teddington CC. Upminster will face Horsham (Sussex) in their morning semi final with the winners moving on to play either Old Merchant Taylor (Middlesex) or Esher (Surrey).
In other junior games on Sunday there were wins for the U8 Ultimate, U10 Ultras and U12 Ultimate alongside losses for the U9 Ultimate and U13 Ultimate.