2025 SCCL Premier Division Round Up Week 19
By Jamie Dowley
Exciting day of action as League remember Craig Simms
Across the league all clubs in the SCCL came together prior to play to pay their respects to Craig Simms, the long standing Results and Registrations Secretary and Madeley scorer who passed away suddenly last Sunday. Craig was a wonderful asset to the League and his personal contribution, often understated, was immense from the time of the merger of the SPL and SCL in 2012 right the way through to this season. Rest in Peace Craig.
On the field it was a barnstorming final day of WDL action with Wellington showing the hallmark of champions to defeat a gutsy Newtown, who for large parts looked the likely winners of their encounter at Orleton Park. None of the home batters could get past 25 (Luke Goring top scoring), as Sam Baugh and Nathan Smith once again showed why they are possibly the best spin pair in the division as Wellington were dismissed for 155 with over 7 overs left on the board. Baugh was as economical as ever taking 1-35 from 15 while Smith although more expensive took 4-58 with Marco Malan and Griff Davies also chipping in with 2 wickets apiece. The Welshmen’s reply was a determined effort, again no batsman could get out of the 20s, Ben Price (22), Ally Laird (27) set the chase up and while Hugh Morris bowled well with the new ball, star allrounder Matt Simmonds was proving rather expensive (2-60). So much so that at 143-6 with Rhys Jones on 25no it looked odds on an away win, but when captain Dan Vaughan threw the ball to 51yr old Mark Downes on his first 1st team appearance since 2011, the veteran allrounder showed his class as he asserted complete control. His 2-5 off 4 overs meant it soon became 150-9 and Hugh Morris (3-29) then finished the game without further addition to snatch a breathless win.
Dan Vaughan “it was a good win that perhaps in all fairness we didn’t deserve but pressure does funny things and we really kept our cool in the end. Having Doddy (Downes) in the team to add experience to what is the youngest team in the league was invaluable in a tight game like this”
It was a big game at Soulton Rd where 2nd played 3rd and Wem came out on top thanks mainly to a fantastic 108 run partnership between Harry Chandler and Matt Cohen. Earlier in the day batting first, visitors St Georges lost early wickets to the pace duo of Tom Astley (4-46) and Alex Ollerenshaw (2-44) and at 94-8 were in huge trouble but then Zab Safi treated the watching crowd to some exceptional hitting as he smote 58 from just 19 balls striking at a seasons record 305 to drag the Dragons to a respectable 157ao. With Shah Fiaz striking 4 times in the reply, to leave Wem 44-4, the away side were firmly in the driving seat but Chandler (66no) and Cohen (55) had other ideas and batted their side to an excellent 5 wicket victory with plenty of overs to spare. That win takes Jim Astley’s side 24 points ahead of their opponents and they are looking good for a runner up position.
Shelton upset the formbook with a solid win over Quatt that owed a lot to an unbeaten 119 from Saleh Ahmed and 43 from Greg Smith that allowed them to post a very competitive 258-7 off 50 overs. The Quatt bowlers toiled away with Jed Edwards taking 3 scalps albeit at a fairly heavy cost as he ended with 3-94 off 15, while Alex Biddle took 3-51 off 10. The form that Quatt have shown in recent weeks would have given them confidence they could secure another win especially against a home attack missing Sam Griffiths once again. But with captain Simon Jones (3-56) showing why he is the leading non-spin bowler in the league , and Ross Griffiths again taking wickets (3-52), the away batting never really got on top of proceedings despite 50 from Josh Greef and Tom Whitney and Alex Starr adding 30 and 36 respectively as they were bundled out for 208 with 5 overs left. Both of these sides still have a chance of a top half finish with 3 games to go, but both are some way off where they were last year.
Ludlow 1s vs Whitchurch 1s - observing 2 minute silence in honour of Craig Simms.
Ludlow will be delighted to be back to winning ways, this time against Whitchurch, for whom the season can’t end quickly enough. On a day of few individual big scores, Jason Oakes on the eve of his wedding top scored with 35, and Sam Edwards made 26 as their side totalled 180ao at the Burway. Mohammed Fahim rarely bowls for the visitors but here he took 4-28 while Shabbir Khan impressed as always with 3-44. However a total such as that has proved too much on several occasions for the defending champions, and here was no different as despite reaching 100-4 with Fahim going well they soon fell away to be 150ao. His was the top score with 66 to complete a solid all round match while for the hosts Luke Miles took 4-62 and the previously unheralded Abdul Manan Ahmadzai took 4-45, with Joe Williams the first to reach 50 wickets in the SCCL this season with 2-17.
Phil Parker “I've been waiting to read of us of being a bit beachy like last year so I am pleased we have got that monkey off our back, and look forward to ending the season on a high in what has been a very solid campaign for us”
Jason Summers produced a fine man of the match performance as his Allscott side got back to winning ways in comprehensive fashion at Bridgnorth. Batting first the hosts relied on early contributions from Raja Ateeq (26) and Matt Martin (24) before Chris Green with 78 and an even half century from Peter Scott boosted the score to 199ao. Brad Thornton opened up with 2-37 but it was the spin pairing of Summers (4-62) and Kuldeep Devatwal (3-44) who really pegged back the home innings. The reply was set up by Max Ferrington, the former Shifnal 2nds opener came good with a season's best 55, but when Summers was joined by Devatwal, the pair motored along and with 21 needed for the win Summers was on 80*. He then hit two 4s at the end of the 32nd over, Devatwal unselfishly hit a single of the first ball of the 33rd and that allowed last season's Premier player of the year to go 4,4,4 and reach exactly 100no for the win.
Finally we end this week at Madeley where the two minutes silence for Craig of course had added poignancy. Only Ed Ashlin with 35 got past the 20 mark but that didn’t stop his Sentinel side posting 201ao as the Madeley attack once again conceded a copious amount of extras this time 58 in total. Salim Ahmed impressed with 4-34 although the pick of the home attack was Mithun with 2-30 off 15 controlled overs of off-spin. The Madeley reply reached 50 without loss but then wickets started to tumble and never really stopped as another off-spinner impressed even more, this time Alex Johnson with 5-61. Only Andy Laycock with 25 and Nad Ahmad with 36 dug in for Madeley as they were dismissed for 152, left armer Jonny Evans supporting Johnson with 3-39.
So the Win-Draw-Lose format comes to an end in the Premier Division and we round the season off with 3 weeks of Win Lose, as Wellington know a win next week at 2024 champions Whitchurch wins them the 2025 title
