First game of the season saw the Ultimates travel the short distance to Harrow Lodge park and a mild Sunday morning saw UCC win the toss and elect to field.

The Hornchurch opening pair got off to a good start and put on 52 runs before Liam Pope struck middle stump removing the dangerous Ayaan Junaid who scored 29 from 29 balls. The second pair continued to be dangerous with some power hitting on the leg side down the hill until Cillian McCartan bowled Aaryan Khan Swati for a good 23 from 20 balls. From this point the bowling was consistently accurate and further wickets from Cillian and Elliot Russell saw UCC keep Hornchurch to a respectable 116/4 from their 20 overs. Our bowling was impressive from the whole team but some work on our fielding is needed!

Our turn to bat – the fun begins, or so we thought. With 6 runs on the board Cillian saw his bails removed, bringing Liam Pope to the crease only for the same thing to happen next ball. Out to the crease I walk, take my guard and look to defend the hattrick ball only to receive an inswinging yorker and receive my first golden duck. We thought the impressive bowling would stop there but unfortunately Elliot suffered the same fate as the rest of us and we now find ourselves in a bit of a situation at 6-4.

In comes Teddy Glensman to join George Middlemiss who had done well from the start of the innings to stick around. Ted was next to depart and George shortly after, brining together the pair of Anghad Dhupar and Aiden Leung which formed a great partnership with Aiden punishing the bowlers with some quick boundaries. The pair did great to bring us up from 21-6 to 67 before the opening bowler Aaryan Khan Swati returned to the attack on which was his fifth wicket ball and struck again removing Anghad. The impressive bowling display saw five straight bowled wickets, something not seen before by even coach Noller!

The remaining wickets fell without scoring and a tough match saw Hornchurch win by 49 runs.