The 2nd XI had made a poor start to the season in 2018, and after two weeks captain and Chairman Ollie Peck was so down on his team's luck that he had flippantly remarked that if they won the Premier Division that season he would take all of the squad on an end of season trip to Las Vegas!! Peck was soon called back into 1st XI action at the end of May and Billy Wright had taken charge of the side and led them on a climb up the table, so much so that when it came to early August the dream of Las Vegas was the talk of the 2nd XI changing room.

However, availability for the trip to Wanstead was not great and a much changed side travelled, including the captain's cousin Luke Read, who was making his first appearance for many years. Despite this Rob White, who had come out of retirement to help the side remembers a positive vibe in the side before the game. "Everyone was buzzing before the game, and all the talk was of the chance of a trip to Vegas courtesy of the Chairman."

Upminster won the toss and with the sun beating down and the outfield looking like straw, captain Wright decided to bat first. It looked like a bad decision as the visitors lost three quick wickets, but Jordan Tigg and Adam Quested led the Upminster recovery. Tigg fell for 47 but Quested went on to make an excellent half century and he received good support from Read and Arun Kullar, although White himself was not able to contribute much with the bat as he recalls. "I don't remember much about our innings to be honest," admitted White, "although I do remember I didn't get many and I was out when I put a long hop straight down mid-wicket's throat, standing in front of the tennis courts." Upminster managed to use all but one ball of their 45 overs as they were bowled out for a competitive 228.

In reply Mark D'Cruz claimed an early scalp to give Upminster hope, but the home side then gradually took control. "Grumpy (D'Cruz) surprised us all by picking up an early one, but after that Wanstead settled down and were going along nice and steadily, and it looked like they may chase it down relatively easy," said White. However, the introduction into the attack of youngster Tom Daniels suddenly changed the outlook and opened the game up. Daniels produced a remarkable spell of 6-25 from seven overs, including the crucial wicket of Izzy Dar as the game remarkably swung the way of the title chasers.

However, Adam Lord remained at the crease, passing fifty, and as White recalls, the game then swung once more. "We looked set for the win and then Sponge (Wright), who normally doesn't give anything away, brought himself back on and Lord took him for 20 odd in an over, and suddenly the game was back on." Lord and last man Haaris Raza looked to be keeping their nerve as they drew the scores level with three balls remaining, but then there was one final twist. "The scores were level and Chutes (Will Chuter) was bowling to Lord." says White "Lord decided to play a kind of cut shot and it came to me in the air at backward point where I took what I remember to be a storming catch to tie the game. Unfortunately for some reason someone was filming so the catch was captured on video which showed it was actually a bit of a dolly. But that didn't stop the wild scenes at the end, and more chat about the trip to Vegas."

Upminster produced some further excellent performances over the next few weeks to stay in contention for the title, but they fell to defeat against title rivals Brentwood on the penultimate week of the season and ended up in third place, and with their dreams of Vegas crushed.

Match Scorecard