Having helped his Ghent Gladiators side to victory in Belgium last week JJ Smuts returned to RM14 and put in another stunning display to help the 1st XI move back into the promotion places as they overcame Hadleigh & Thundersley at Upminster Park. Aaron Beard won the toss and decided to bowl first and he then saw the visitors make a solid start as they reached 36 without loss. However, the introduction of Smuts into the attack changed things immediately as he trapped Jack Wasgaff in front before the skipper then sent back Billy Corps as Upminster took control. Smuts did further damage, running through much of Hadleigh's middle order as they fell to 67-5 before Tom Rollinson and Joe Mciver began to turn things around for the visitors. The pair put together an excellent partnership with Mciver initially the more aggressive of the two before Rollinson then began to find the boundary more regularly to keep the scoreboard moving. Smuts completed his five wicket haul when he dismissed Mciver for 52 to end the 126 run partnership, and Beard then had Rollinson caught by Kiran Kullar for 80 as Upminster once again took control. Hadleigh lost a further late wicket to a run out as they ended on 228-8. Abin Matthew picked up an early wicket in the Upminster reply before Kullar and Smuts put the home side in full control with a partnership of 87. Kullar went for 39, Matthew doing the damage once more, but Smuts was moving quickly towards three figures and received excellent support from Gus Philpot who continued his fine season. The South African all-rounder brought up his latest milestone from 64 balls as Upminster cruised towards victory, and he ended on 128 not out with Philpot finishing 45 not out as the home side won by eight wickets with nine overs to spare.

The 2nd XI remain in the bottom two after a batting collapse saw them fall to defeat at Woodford Wells. Upminster had been asked to bat first when Wells won the toss and the visitors were in a spot of bother at 73-3. However, an excellent fourth wicket partnership of 109 between Ian Russell and Gus Siggins started to put Upminster on top as they moved into a strong position at 182-3. Siggins fell for 69 but Vansh Mehra helped Russell (81) take the score to 217-4 with 14 overs of the innings remaining. Mehra and Russell were then dismissed in quick succession and a collapse followed as Upminster quickly fell to 229 all out with nine overs of their innings not used. George Ellis was the pick of the Wells attack as he picked up 4-63. Wells made an excellent start to their reply with Visakan Balakumar and Jun-Le Shukla putting on 96 for the first wicket before Shukla was run out for 34. Scott Simmons and Alan Ison then got Upminster back in the game as Wells fell to 119-4 but Balakumar remained and while he was there the home side remained in control of the chase. Simmons finally removed the opener for 72 to give Upminster further hope but Ozzie Ashraf and Mark Lee then combined to put Wells in control once again as they took the total towards 200 before Ashraf went for 39 and Simmons then completed his five wicket haul as Wells faltered once more. Lee remained though, and finished 54 not out as Wells won by two wickets with just over two overs remaining.

A solid all round performance saw the 3rd XI move very much into the title race as they convincingly beat Harlow at Coopers. Having opted to bowl first, skipper Dan Simpson will have been pleased to see his opening pairing of Finley Tolan and Mark D'Cruz do the early damage to put Upminster on top. Tolan went on to claim 3-32 while D'Cruz finished with two wickets, as did Ryan Oakes and Joseph Brooks, as Harlow were bowled out for a below par 130. Simpson and George Sherdian made a solid start to the Upminster reply and after Sheridan fell Zoran Suneel helped the skipper to keep things on track, Simpson went for 41, Ollie Burley hit a quick 15 and Suneel (29*) and Michael Pedrick then saw Upminster to a win by seven wickets with lots of time to spare.

The 4th XI tightened their grip on top spot with a fine all round performance against Wanstead & Snaresbrook at Nutter Lane. Having chosen to bowl first Matt Ingleson was able to stand and admire the bowling skills of Fenton Everingham who took four early wickets to put Wanstead on the back foot. David Sacree (43) threatened to lead a revival from the home side but when he became one of three victims to Nathan Brown the home innings was nearly at an end. Aedan Daly also picked up three wickets as Wanstead were all out for 95 in just 26.3 overs. Ethan Berry smashed 48 from 40 balls to get the Upminster reply off to a fast start and although he fell just before the end, Steve Limn continued his good form with 41 not out as Upminster coasted to a nine wicket win.

Another side to get their afternoon's work wrapped up quickly was the 5th XI, who got back to winning ways against Wickford at Campion. Darren Windeatt, Stuart Bevan and Jack Peters had all made good contributions to take Wickford to 92-1 but when Ryan Brown removed Bevan (34) Upminster took control. Off-spinner Lewis Munn produced a fine spell of bowling, claiming a superb 5-18, and with Brown picking up 2-43 Wickford were bowled out for 132. Upminster lost two early wickets in their pursuit of victory but Ian Munn and Matt Mccarthy were in no mood to hang around as they both peppered the boundaries. Both men did fall for 46 each but 20 not out from Liam Robertson saw Upminster to a six wicket win from just 18.1 overs.

The 6th XI put in a battling performance before losing out at leaders Hatfield and Peverel. Only Dylan Brooks (23) made any impression from Upmister's top order and at 63-5 the visitors looked in big trouble. However, Rob Evans, Alfie Taplin (39) and Anay Narbheram all showed great resilience and that helped Upminster haul their way up to a competitive total of 160. Woody Treadwell struck early in the Hatfield reply and with Narbheram and Aadit Latey also picking up wickets the game was in the balance at 75-3. Alan Johnson (51) and Sowdaaman Suresh (49*) put the home side in charge with a partnership of 50, and despite Treadwell returning to the attack to pick up two further wickets it was the league leaders who won by five wickets.

It was a similar story for the 7th XI as they fought hard against Rankins but ended up on the wrong end of things. Rahman Bhatty (63) and Adam Huggins (49) put Rankins into a strong performance with a strong opening partnership and that was then taken on by Sandeep and Sriyan Gangireddy who made 80* and 49 respectively to take their side towards a big score. Kevin Roome bowled superbly for Upminster to claim 3-39 as Rankins closed on 292-6. Mark Hortop top scored in the Upminster reply with 50, and there were also good contributions from Oscar Hayes, Ian Twine and Max Bird, but with Jacob Keig taking 3-39 for Rankins, Upminster were restricted to 209-7 to lose by 83 runs.

The 8th XI played out a thrilling tie with Stanford Le Hope at Coopers. Stanford batted first and 56 from Harrison Mirza helped them to make 115 with Ralph Moore claiming 3-21 for Upminster. Upminster lost regular wickets in reply with Avanish Patil taking 6-21, but it looked like 30 from Ewan McArthur was going to take them to victory before they were also bowled out for 115 as the game ended in a tie.

The Friendly XI lost out in their latest encounter at Herongate & Ingrave. Herongate made 246 with runs for Dunn, Dixon and Doe while Tinus Stander and Ollie Dignam impressed with the ball for Upminster. Upminster never got going in reply and although skipper Mike Jones made 22 they were bowled out for 104.

On Sunday the latest game in Windmill Whack XI saw the BrewDog Braves take a huge step towards Finals Day with a convincing win over the Griffin Grandmasters. Impressive batting from Thomas Cargill, Callum Berry, George Ashlin and Alan Ison saw the Braves pile up a net score of 173 (229-7) with Joshua O'Sullivan claiming 2-12 for the Grandmasters. In reply the Grandmasters lost too many wickets to leave themselves a chance, with Cargill taking 5-18 for the Braves. The Grandmasters threw the bat at everything late on to try and make up lost ground but ended on a net score of 58 (154-12).

There were also a number of junior games throughout Sunday, and alongside the U16 Ultras (who won when Billericay conceded) there were victories for the U15 Ultimate, the U14 Ultras, the U11 Ultras and the U10 Ultras, and losses for the U12 Ultimate, the U11 Girls and the U8 Ultras