2025 SCCL Premier Division Review Week 5 - by Jamie Dowley
Oakes side keep up 100% record as Whitchurch horror story continues....
Ludlow made the long trek north defending a 100% win record against 2024 Champions Whitchurch, who have had the mirror opposite start to the season. With the home batting having really struggled so far, several players were searching for form although that didn’t apply to Iftikhar Khan and the classy right hander added to his season’s tally with a fine 69. Other batsmen didn’t find run scoring quite so easy, with Joe Williams, the outstanding bowler in the SCCL this year, once again showing why Shropshire would do well to take another look at him, in taking 4-22 off his 10 overs. Adan Hussain slugged it out for 39 and a total of 207, although a season’s best, was probably only a par score. With Luke Miles departing without troubling the scorers, Jason Oakes was clearly a key player in the remaining proceedings but when he went for 34 to leave the visitors 57-3, Dan Bowen would have been confident of the first win of the season. A rain break and a revised DLS total seemed to help Ludlow and Deon Patel, a player who had threatened a few times to produce a match winning knock, stepped up to the plate, his 79 was worth its weight in gold as the team from South Shropshire got home with 10 balls remaining. A tough one to take for Dan Bowen who was the standout bowler for the hosts with 3-27. So what now for Whitchurch? Their title defence is already clearly over and they travel to Newtown tomorrow missing their Captain and hoping they can kick start their season before they get embroiled in a relegation battle.
Jason Oakes (pictured) “I am so proud of the fight from this team and it is different people contributing not the same players every week. Phil tells me it’s the best start in the club's history so that's incredible really. Big one against Allscott Heath on Monday, hopefully the rain stays away”
Wem continued their upsurge against pre-season fancied St Georges, a side who are struggling to put back to back performances together. Wem openers Harry Chandler and Sam Peate put on 101 for the first wicket, the former showing why he has earned a County call up with a fluent 48, while the latter continues his solid form with 56. This score was repeated by Karabo Mogotsi who scored at a run a ball, ensuring a total of 234 ao as the Wem late order swung the bat. Mo Khattak, the seventh bowler employed by the hosts picked up 4 late wickets for 25 runs. With Tom Astley away, older brother Jim made the inspired decision to turn to the junior of the 3 Astleys, Harry, to take the new ball and his offspin struck twice at the top of the order including the danger man Zab Saifi for a duck. With Tyler Ibbotson bowling with good control, the Captain then introduced Ralph Davies and the 14 yr old youngster, highlighted pre season as a star of the future, duly showed why as he struck 3 times including the prize wicket of Sunny Singh. Davies finished with 3-33 and Harry Astley with 4-39 all meant The Dragons were shot out for 166 in 35 overs.
Jim Astley “we are over the moon with that win. It was a tough pitch to bat on and we batted so well, especially the running between the wickets. Ralph and Harry were inspired today, that’s Ralph’s first wicket at this level, and the lads are all delighted for him as he really works hard at this game. All the bowlers stepped up to fill the void left by Tom but I must give a shout out to Matt Cohen who ran their pro out with a brilliant piece of footwork”
A fine 94no from James Shaw saw Sentinel home by 5 wickets with 3 overs to spare against Madeley. The visitors were inserted and laid foundations with Salim Ahmed (33 off 99 balls ) and Alex Holland (35 off 63), but with just 115 on the board off 35 overs were indebted to a late innings charge from last weeks centurion Mithun Jayawickrema who struck a rapid 71no off just 50 balls, to post a total of 237-9. For the Engines, Shane Gwilt rolled back the years to take 2-24 off 9 overs, while Jacob Binnersley provided a showstopper of a 49th over taking 3 wickets and claiming a run out for a slightly unauthentic hat-trick, the young all rounder ended with 5-45. The Sentinel top order was once again exposed early and at 28-3, Martin Boyle’s men would have been favourites, but with Aaryan Dixit cutting loose at the one end and Shaw playing a more patient but no less effective innings, they took a foothold in the runchase. Dixit departed for a magnificent 55 ball 80, and that allowed Connor Cheshire (25no) to comfortably see the innings home alongside Shaw who was happy to eschew personal glory for a team win.
Ed Ashlin “A good performance, we contained in the field well and despite their late acceleration we felt they were a little under par. Some great shots from Aaryan and Jimmy of course showed his class to take us home, a really excellent run chase”
Once again a strong batting effort from Bridgnorth wasn’t enough to secure a first victory of the season, as Allscott Heath stand in captain Luke Thornton produced a career best league score to inspire his side in their successful run chase. Peter Scott with another score of 80 found support from Arjun Cheruki (53), Ross Hurdley (37) and Jed Schwarzbach (36), as the away side totalled a useful looking 267-7, but the home reply made swift inroads. Jason Summers with 72 and Thornton’s quality 85, both compiled in swift time, meant that Kuldeep Devatwal (28) and then Bryn Summers (24no) could see it through with more than 10 overs remaining
Newtown produced arguably their best display of the season but it still wasn’t enough to defeat Wellington who have made it 5 wins from 5, and are now short price favourites (in this persons eyes) to win the title . Solid contributions from Will Lewin (60) Brian Mudzinganyama (41), Dan Vaughan (33), Matt Simmonds (43), and a lovely late order cameo from Hugh Morris (43 from 28) saw the visitors post 252-8 in Mid Wales. The home reply was all about Ben Price, the recent signing up from Kent has got going on a few occasions thus far, but this time he really performed superbly carrying his bat for a magnificent 117. Sadly for the Welshmen, no-one else apart from Marco Malan could bat with him against a high quality attack where all 5 bowlers contributed wickets. Newtown ended on 207ao but this will be a performance that will give them a lot of heart with another big home game tomorrow versus Whitchurch
Finally, Quatt got back to winning ways with a resounding win against a Shelton side who were hit by an overnight sickness bug that accounted for the absence of overseas pro Yuvraj Sharma and affected several of the side. The hosts gave a debut to new signing James Lunn and Dan Handley, recently brought in from Broseley, also made his first team debut. Both players made an instant impact to reduce Shelton to 46-5, Handley accounting for the two big scalps in Ben Matthews and ex county pro Greg Smith, who both failed to trouble the scorers. Quatt skipper Alex Biddle then tidied up proceedings emphatically, running through the lower order to dismiss the visitors for 87 and finish with 5-28. Handley with 3-16 and Lunn 2-25 made it a fine afternoon for the Quatt attack. Tom Whitney 54no and Stuart Walters 28no then saw the job through for a solid 10 wicket win that pleased the Quatt captain no end.
“A great performance from the debutants, they really bowled well on a decent deck. Lunny has played a lot of good level cricket, and Dan's first team debut is perhaps overdue. That pair set the tone and it was pleasing to pick up a few wickets myself. Tom and Stu were then clinical and it’s always nice to win by 10 wickets”
