1st XI: The first team played their first game back in Division 2 last weekend after back to back promotions! We got off to a strong start with Dan winning the toss and choosing to bowl! We took early wickets and kept the pressure on, eventually bowling Farnham out for 79. Ollie Armstrong was the pick of the bowlers with his unplayable swing bowling getting him 4 wickets and James Moore took 2 catches behind the stumps. Addiscombe followed their strong fielding performance with the bat too where James and Shareef had a brilliant opening partnership of 66. James ended his innings with a score of 43 and Shareef finished on 27* as he helped us over the line! Overall a very strong performance and more to build on for the second game! Written by Jack Stone.

2nd XI: Addiscombe CC v Māori Oxshott away to Māori Oxshott.
Pitch looked dry from the top “like a road” in the words of the 2s captain but, the pitch had a little damp underneath it. Came to toss, Addiscombe lost the toss and we’re fielding first. Bowlers and fielders did a great job keeping the opposition below their par score of 160-170 runs (121 all out 46 overs) with Barry Lineker bowling 9 maiden overs taking 3 wickets and only giving 2 runs in his spell of 10 overs. With Pragya Shukla (40 off 29) opening the batting for Addiscombe, it looked like a promising win for the visiting team. Avaneesh Vallassery debuting for the 2s played a really good innings of 29 off 46 gave the rest of the line some ease to score runs freely. Mohammed Anas (22 off 20) and Amal Babu (16 off 21) at the end won the game for Addiscombe with Amal hitting the winning six over deep square leg. Written by Nikhil Malhotra.

3rd XI: Ross Williams, the 3s super-keen skipper, fresh from last year’s successful season (using Prem-talk, we cruised to a ‘place in Europe’), was up early and at the ground giving his breakfast pitch report for the season’s first league match. It took him a while to find which strip we were using as it happened to be same shade of green as the outfield, but we didn’t mind. Addington is our Fortress.

Banstead batted first and Big Jack Southwell and Young Naweed Shinwari opening the bowling. Rather ominously, we dropped their skipper and best batsman when in single figures and it turned out to be an key moment. It was one of those Addington tracks where 25 is worth 50 and his 39 turned out to be a match-winning knock.

Big Jack did well with 3-19 off 9 typically tight overs and Ash Tandon also got into a good groove with 2-9 off 7 miserly overs. And our best bowler was debutant Abid Sherzad, who bowled with good pace to get 3-15 off 6 overs and looked a strong prospect.

Tom Wells would have loved this track but leaving his spikes at home meant he was slipping and bowled a tad gingerly (almost as ginger as me) and without his usual nip. Banstead’s young lower order did well and they managed to get a disappointing 139. And, as anyone with experience of Addington knows, chasing 140 on that deck in early May is no easy prospect. And so it turned out.

The mature ginger openers, Kuhrt and Wise did not last long and our strong batting line up failed to deliver. As so often, Ayoub was our most dangerous batsman and he was looking good for 31 when he unnecessarily swung across the line and was bowled. Another 10 overs of Ayoub and we would probably have won. Ross and Robbie both got double figures but we basically collapsed in a sorry heap.

The best entertainment of the day came from some of the running between the wickets at the end, starring Young Ajmal, Big Jack and No Spikes Tom. They together provided comedy of the highest rank possible. If we had a Frogbox video cameras at Addington then Tom Wells would have gone viral with his sprint, stop, slip, followed by a literally 5 second-long lie-down mid-pitch. He eventually clambered back to his crease and was still was not run out. It was truly incredible and was to win him the coveted Pink Cowboy Hat Award.

So ultimately a disappointing result to lose by 47 runs in a match we probably should have won if we had taken our chances and batted just a bit better. All our batters need to realise (and 4s take note) that IT DOES NOT BOUNCE AT ADDINGTON! We need to get those ‘it didn’t get up’ excuses out of our systems, get on the front-foot and grind out totals that will win us matches.

But despite the result, stirring words from the Skipper and the inspirational Robbie Naraine means we left in good hearts. And with Abid wearing the MoM medal and Wellsy as the Camp Cowboy, we had a cracking night at the bar. Onward and upward for the 3s! Written by Jon Kuhrt

4th XI: 4s had a very close match with me losing the toss and asked to bat. We had a good start but then we were 63/5 and this is when Krishna and Adam had a 78 run partnership followed by Krishna and Vinay ending with a respectable total. 2nd innings, we started really well with Safi blowing away the opposition as they could not read him. He took 2 wickets in his opening spell and Mani on the other end did a tight spell too. Middle overs, we gave away too many runs both in bowling and fielding, showing the signs of rustiness. Safi was pick of the bowlers with 4 wickets and a catch. Written by Vinay Malhotra.

5th XI: The Saturday 5thXI got off to a winning start in their first game in competitive action, with a strong bowling performance setting up a confident chase. The 5ths found themselves fielding first on the first warm day of the spring, building pressure quickly as Kaivin Chima and Chris Martinz kept the opposition openers to mostly singles in their opening spell, with just the one boundary coming in first 10 overs. Despite the slow scoring, a wicket didn’t fall until Chris snuck one through to clean bowl the Cheam opener late in his first spell. First change was Michael Jones who was unfortunate not to grab a wicket, with a looping delivery caught by MD at mid off before being adjudged to have narrowly over stepped. Addiscombe started to turn the screw with the run rate remaining slow and the introduction of spin, Michael Dean, captaining, taking 2 wickets alongside debutant Muhammad Uzair Hassan taking another 2, each achieving 1 off some sharp catching off keeper Albie Sharrock who was athletic and enthusiastic throughout. Following drinks the run rate remained low however a lull in wickets began to suggest that Cheam would bat through their 40 overs before a misfield followed by some quick reactions to hit the stumps from Chris brought about an important wicket. Mitesh Patel and a returning Chris managed to wrap up the innings leaving the As with a chase of 99 to win.
Addiscombe were off to an immediate start, with stand in opener Branavan Hariharan blasting the first ball of the innings back down the ground for 4. Bran and Albie continued the first start, putting on 30 for the 1st wicket at a strong rate and setting up the remainder of the chase. Jordan Gould came in at 3 and growing in confidence drove down through cover for 3 and lifted the Cheam off spinner through mid wicket for 4 before succumbing to a slower ball after 34 deliveries. Following that wickets fell in quick succession though, realistically, Addiscombe’s fast start had broken the back of the chase. Chris, Rensley and MD found themselves bowled before Muhammad and Harish stabilised the ship, with 10 and 18 respectively to take Addiscombe 5ths to a first and confident victory. Written by Jordan Gould.