2026 SCCL Premier Division Round Up Week 11
by Jamie Dowley
We are now at the halfway stage of the Premier Division campaign and an exciting round of fixtures produced upsets galore.
Leaders stumble as Dragons roar
Quatt picked their strongest side of the season with veterans Craig Jones and James Ralph in to bolster the ranks in what was expected to be their toughest test yet at Church Rd against St Georges. However on this occasion their much vaunted bowling attack failed to stem the runs as Waqas Ahmed made a patient 34 before Charitha Kumarasinghe took centre stage to strike a superb 82. With Amritpal Singh scoring 54, and crowd favourite Zab Safi striking at 235 for a quick 33, St Georges even had the luxury of batting Ashish at 6, as they totalled 274-8. Quatt stuck at the task with Alex Biddle and Todd Henderson going at under 4 an over, but a run chase of 275 against St Georges bowlers looked a tough task at halfway. An opening stand of 93 between Ryan Wheldon (47) and Tom Whitney (40) set the chase up but when they both fell at the hands of Babar Khan and overseas pro Nipun was adjudged LBW for 30, one of 4 victims to the outstanding Ashish, the attention switched to Quatt not losing the game. James Ralph, at the scene of his greatest moment in cricket, his hundred versus Somerset in 2000, battled well for 21no but the Quatt lower order soon succumbed to the pace of Shah Fiaz, Ali Mustafa and Ashish as the league leaders were dismissed for 185. A big win for St Georges who are up to 141 points and would now be top if it wasn’t for their hefty points deductions.
Engelbrecht makes light work of Sentinels solid total
Sentinel travelled to the Burway looking to end the first half of the campaign with a 2nd win and after making 274-7, would have been quietly confident of getting the job done. That total owed much to a very good 108 from Tom Griffiths, the opener is something of a red ball specialist and here he showed his qualities, receiving good support from Nick Bateup (46), Connor Cheshire (53no) and a late cameo from Jonny Evans who whacked 28. Ludlow bowlers plugged away on a surface that has the reputation for being among the best in the county, with Luke Miles the pick of the attack getting through 15 overs, taking 2-54. The Ludlow chase was largely about one man, Nathan Englebrecht. The South African has taken a while to settle, but is now proving to be more than a worthy replacement for Jason Oakes and his excellent month with the bat culminated with this flawless display, making 153no as he timed the run chase to perfection. With Sam Edwards supporting with 33 and captain Miles making 57, Ludlow won by 8 wickets with 16 balls to spare. Ed Ashlin shuffled his bowlers throughout but none could find a way through and his side are very much now in a relegation dogfight with another difficult game next week at home to Wem.
Madeley thrash Shelton in Mithun super show
Madeley are scrapping for their lives and they produced probably their best team performance for a long while in beating Shelton by 124 runs at Park Street. Anil Kumar and Andrew Laycock set them on their way with the bat with 33 and 34 respectively, before Bas Ahmad joined forces with Captain Mithun Jayawickrema to really turn the screw on the visiting bowlers. The pair put on 134, and when Ahmad fell for 64, Mithun carried on the attack, making 98 off 94 balls before falling to Simon Jones, one of 3 victims for the left-armer. Sam Griffiths (3-61) and Jack Morris (2-27) also plugged away but in truth it was a bowling performance to forget for Shelton with the slow bowlers in particular taking some hefty punishment in a home total of 295. It didn’t get any better for the visitors in the 2nd half with both openers, Viv John and Pabel Saha back in the pavilion for ducks, but Dan Walker, called up this week for the League XI, played well for 66 and got support from Ben Matthews with 41. However with Mithun bowling superbly in taking 3-55, the experienced Salim Ahmed closed out the game with 4-36 as Shelton made it 3 defeats on the trot being bowled out for 171.
Allscott Heath bounce back from horror month to win Heath Rd thriller
It was Armed Forces day at Whitchurch and the local patrons came out in good number hoping to see their side attempt to bounce back after losing the derby last week against Wem. For Allscott Heath, it’s truly been a month to forget but one thing they have never lacked is a fighting team spirit and the two sides played out a nailbiting match that went down to the wire. Batting first, Mike Robinson struck a run a ball 35, and the hosts were looking good at 125-3, but when spinners Jason Summers and Kuldeep Devatwal were introduced they took control of the innings . Only Kunal Dabas with 24 and Elliot Bowen who top scored with 43 were able to make meaningful contributions as Summers (3-58) and pick of the attack Devatwal (4-35) closed out the home innings at 196 in the final over. In what was a tense and nervy reply, Allscott were soon ahead of the required run rate but with Shabbir Khan (3-52) and Kash Hussain (3-59) plugging away, and with Summers and Devatwal departing for 20 and 22 respectively, the hosts were in the box seat. Luke Thornton then made 36 but at 128-6 it was down to Austin Rowley (34) and the experienced Bryn Simmons (pictured, photo credit Eliza Dowley) to see it home. Their 41 run partnership was ended by Alex Heath (2-32), and when 2 further wickets fell, suddenly Allscott needed 10 to win with 1 wicket remaining. Out strode an injured Bradley Thornton, certainly not a usual number 11, and together with the cool head of Simmons (34no) they were able to get the job done with scenes of jubilation in the away section.
The Rock n’ Ralph Show
Wem are starting to find top gear and made fairly comfortable work of Newtown at Soulton Rd. The news before the game was that Ben Price had relinquished the captaincy for the visitors in order to concentrate on his batting with the mantle being taken up by former skipper David Anthony. Price certainly seemed to have a weight off his shoulders as he scored freely for 29 before falling victim to Tom Astley, one of 5 eventual victims (5-49) for the pace bowler. However at 128-4 with Rhys Jones playing superbly it could have all been different for the Welshmen but when overseas Jordan Baijnath holed out on the boundary off Ralph Davies, the young spinner who started rather loosely, then found his range and quickly ripped through the middle and lower order to finish with 5-30 as Newtown lost their last 6 wickets for just 12 runs. The aforementioned Jones can hold his head high after making a superb 75, a career best at this level.
In reply, Harry Chandler found some form in making 48, Sam Peate contributed 20 but Josh Gough rightly took the plaudits, his 48no saw the job through for a 6 wicket win inside 24 overs, with away star bowler Nathan Smith taking 3-25 for Newtown. That leaves Wem 19 points behind Quatt and with Abhishek Reddy back on Wednesday and Dan Bowen available from next week, they look ready to offer a title challenge. For Newtown they have 2 huge games at home to Whitchurch and Madeley coming up to try and arrest a worrying slide.
Newtown’s Griff Davies looks solid as Harry Chandler waits patiently (photo credit Eliza Dowley)
Gill impresses again in draw salvage
Finally to London Rd where in form Shrewsbury 2nds battled to a losing draw against champions Wellington, who themselves are yet to take maximum points in the WDL format. Batting first, Dan Vaughan continued his good run with 45, Matt Simmonds struck a season best 72, while contributions from David Laird (23), Josh McDonald (25), Luke Goring (26) and Will Lewin (23no) meant a total of 263-8 was realised. For Shrewsbury, Ryan Fernando has impressed in recent weeks and carried it on here with 3-81, while Wilf Peers bowled well for 3-61. At 121-2 in the run chase with half the overs left, the game was in the balance, but when George Hughes departed for 31, after Krish Chadha had earlier made 32, the collapse was on in the face of some excellent slow bowling from Simmonds and Jason Oakes (3-25). Throughout it all, Kieran Gill was keeping a cool head and with sensible support from Tom Griffin the Kiwi saw the game through to its conclusion ending on 75no off 128 balls and a 5-17 points split in Wellington's favour.
