In 2007, Upminster 1st XI won promotion to the Essex Premier League for the first time in the clubs history. The team was full of now legendary Upminster CC players including Shafiq Rahman, Michael Rath, John Curtis, who were all well lead by Ollie Peck. Douglas Hondo was the clubs overseas for that year as his bowling partnership with Arshad Ali (88 wickets between them) took Upminster to the Premier League.
Forward to the summer of 2008 and Douglas Hondo was replaced with off-spinning capabilities of Naaem Iqbal. Jack Swash also joined the club as the 1st XI wicket-keeper as the rest of the team were looking forward to taking on the Essex big boys.
Upminster’s first game was against Hainault and Clayhall CC who were a well-established Premier League club who included the talents of Dominic Hurst, Mousshin Ismail and Irfan Shah.
Upminster CC XI-
Steve Wright
Arshad Ali
Jason McNally
Alan Ison
Shafiq Rahman
Nicholas O’Dell
Terry Wyatt
Jack Swash (wk)
Harry Jenkins
Naeem Iqbal
Oliver Peck ©

Upminster won the toss and elected to field at the Jack Carter Centre in early May. Alan Ison opened the bowling with Jason McNally, which was a very good seam attack back then. Regular opener John Curtis missed the game due to injury. Ison struck early on, taking the wicket of his Essex teammate Dominic Hurst. The two openers were backed up by the three man strong bowling attack of Ali, Peck and Iqbal and between them bowled 48 overs as Hainault finished on 223/9 in their 64 overs. Naeem Iqbal finishing with 4/64 in a long 21 over spell.

Between the three spinners, they would end up taking 127 wickets in the 2008 summer, Naeem leading the charts with 53 wickets.

In reply, Upminster started poorly with Wright, Ali, McNally and Rahman all falling for under 5 runs each. Alan Ison and Nicholas O’Dell re-built the innings with a 67 run partnership before O’Dell fell for 23 off the bowling of Irfan Shah. Terry Wyatt and Alan then came together and their main partnership of 86 put Upminster on course for victory. Jack Swash and Harry Jenkins put on the last 20 runs as Upminster chased down 223 in 47 overs to record their first ever Premier League victory.

It turned out to be a great season for the 1st XI with the team punching above their weight and finishing in 4th place in the Premier League recording 8 wins in 18 games along the way.

(Scorecard)