2026 SCCL Premier Division Round Up Week 12
By Jamie Dowley
The Rock ‘n’ Ralf Show (the sequel)
Old rivals Sentinel and Wem played out an exciting contest at Albert Rd and it was the visitors who emerged triumphant in a match that had plenty of excellent cricket from both sides. Wem were fresh from their record 100 score at Ludlow on Thursday and having been inserted by the hosts scored freely in the first few overs. But when pro Abhishek Reddy was caught and bowled by Cameron Watson, the former St Georges seamer who has been playing for the RAF in recent weeks, followed it up with 3 more quick wickets to help reduce Wem to 101-6 on a wicket that was excellent for batting. That required a rebuilding job by Wem, and first Matt Cohen chipped in with 33 before Tom Astley combined with Alex Ollerenshaw (36) and Dan Bowen on debut in crucial partnerships of 58 and 61 for the 8 and 9 wickets. The bowling all-rounder has always threatened big runs and here he chose the opportune moment for a career best 88 as he punished the tired Sentinel attack in the closing overs for a team score of 256-9. Watson, perhaps surprisingly only got through 7 overs in taking 4-34, while the consistent Alex Johnson took 3-60 off 13 overs.
Shane Gwilt is out LBW to give Wem the win (Eliza Dowley)
Sentinel were in the game throughout their run chase and at 126-2 were slight favourites, as in form Tom Griffiths and Nick Bateup scored freely against the Wem seamers. The game turned with the introduction of Ralph Davies (main picture), at first the off spinner pegged back the scoring before removing both set batters for 52 apiece. Bowling an unchanged spell of 15 overs Davies showed exceptional control and despite 28 from Connor Cheshire and 30no from Cam Watson, Wem were able to close the Sentinel innings out for exactly 200, the young off spinner ending with 5-60 and another man of the match award shared with Tom Astley for the 2 week running.
Wem captain Alex Ollerenshaw “We were in a bit of trouble, but Rock (Tom Astley) got us out of it with an exceptional knock with Matt, Dan and I able to support him. Same with the 2 innings, the seamers weren’t able to get a foothold but the spinners, with Ralph excelling once again, won the game against a very competitive Sentinel side who are much better than their league placing suggests. All in all, it was a good day for us”
St Georges double up at Orleton Park
Fresh from their narrow victory in the Hundred, St Georges returned to the scene to exact a more comprehensive victory over Champions Wellington. On a pitch helping the seamers , Dan Vaughan and Matt Simmonds (28) battled hard up top and at 77-1 were set up well for a decent total. But the Dragons have a superb all-round attack and here it was Ashish and Babar Khan who did the damage. The former bowled unchanged bar for a switch of ends, and that decision proved crucial as the swing bowler took 4-45 off 15, and Babar took 3-23 as Wellington were dismissed for 145 off 43 overs. The reply was a clinical affair as Mohammed Aqeeb made 38, before Charitha Kumarasinghe took charge with 52no and Amritpal Singh chipped in with 22no to ensure an 8 wicket win.
St Georges Club Captain Faisal Khan “The wicket looked green, so we stuck them in and after they made a good start we were doubting it but Kasjuan Sullivan produced 3 bits of magic in the field that turned the game, with Babar and Ashish outstanding with the ball. The run chase was straightforward with all 4 batters used on form. 2 wins in the week against Wellington is a real achievement for this group and we are playing some exciting cricket. Can we win the division? We are getting asked this a lot, we are certainly on a roll (4 on the trot), we probably need the division to open up a bit, and we need to keep on winning that’s all we can do”
Quatt bag 24 with Henderson starring!
Leaders Quatt returned to winning ways with a typical powerhouse performance against a visiting Ludlow side who have been on the receiving end of some punishment in the last 72 hours (courtesy of Wem in the Premier 100 ¼ finals). Batting first as usual, the hosts had two major contributions with Tom Whitney making 88 and Todd Henderson ending on 96no, the ex-South Staffs league allrounder narrowly missing out on a first hundred in the SCCL with a dot off the final ball of the innings in a team score of 265-5. Sammy Bowen for Ludlow was the pick of the attack with 3-59, while Joe Williams took 2-56. Any successful run chase would clearly require something special from Nathan Engelbrecht and although the South African kept his fine run of form going with 67, Quatt’s all-round attack was too much for Ludlow as they succumbed for a creditable 170, with Joe Williams helping himself to 28. Henderson carried on his earlier good work with 3-50 as Jamie Lunn’s side bagged another 24 points.
Jamie Lunn “It was a good win today; we have some challenges coming up which we look forward to as we always want to test ourselves against the best teams”
Heath hammers Newtown in all round super show!
There was early drama at the Recreation Ground where Whitchurch skipper Mike Robinson was given out obstructing the field after blocking a return throw from Newtown’s Jordan Baijnath. With both umpires conferring, the appeal from home captain David Anthony was upheld and the visitors were in trouble at 21-2. They soon recovered with a solid outing from the middle order as Kunal Dabas (photo, Eliza Dowley) made 40, Iftikhar Khan a watchful 54 and a top score 66 from Mohammed Fahim.
That left time for some fireworks from the unheralded bat of Alex Heath, the pace bowler showed a full range of sweeps and ramps before depositing a couple of huge sixes onto the adjacent golf course in making a rapid 38 in a team score of 232-7. Nathan Smith and Baijnath were the pick of the home bowlers as they got through 30 overs of work between them, but the home reply got off to a shaky start with an early run out, and when star batter Ben Price fell for a duck amidst a fine opening spell from Kash Hussain (4-26) the writing was soon on the wall for Newtown. Then it was over to Heath to tidy up affairs, as he produced a season’s best with the ball too, rattling through the rest of the batters in short order to finish with 5-16 and a huge 174 run win.
Whitchurch captain Mike Robinson “That was a complete team performance, we were missing a few and the replacements all contributed at some point in the game including a 16 year old (Frank Thompson) making his debut. I only used 3 bowlers and they were all excellent” And on his controversial dismissal for obstruction? “I wasn’t too happy with the appeal or the decision that followed but the umpires verdict is final and I always accept it”
Shelton return to winning ways…almost
Shelton has had a sticky patch recently with 3 straight defeats, but were on the right side of a drawn derby game against Shrewsbury 2nds, albeit one that should have ended with 24 points but for a fine rearguard from Shrewsbury. An excellent 99 run partnership set the West Shrewsbury side on their way as Viv John made 48 and Pabel Saha top scored with 60. Other contributions came from former Notts and Essex all-rounder Greg Smith with 28 on his seasonal reappearance, while overseas Navindu Vithanage hit an aggressive unbeaten 40 as they got the team score up to 256-7 off 50 overs. Ed Prideaux was the leading bowler with 4-52 for a Shrewsbury side who boasted their best batting line up of the season on paper and would have been hopeful of a successful run chase. However, the 2 half was all about some high quality bowling from Sam Griffiths (2-66) Simon Jones (3-59) and Navindu (2-25) to reduce Shrewsbury to 122-8 with 23 overs still to bat as only Seb Scott, dropped from the 1sts, made 40. It was then down to Rob Foster batting in unfamiliar territory at number 8, to try and salvage a losing draw and he found a willing partner in George Jenkins who made 29 from 64 balls. When Jenkins departed with 6 overs remaining Harry Webster saw it through for a losing draw with Foster unbeaten on 52no. Shelton take 15 points and Shrewsbury 9.
Shelton captain Jack Morris “It was frustrating to not win the game with so many overs left at the last 2 wickets, but credit to them they batted well at the end to stop us. We will take plenty of positives though after a tough couple of weeks where we haven’t been anywhere near our best”
One sided encounter in Telford North v South battle
Finally, Allscott Heath made it back to back wins with an easy as you like victory over Madeley at the ACG . Electing to bat first the visitors were soon in trouble at 8-3, with Callum Starling striking twice but Jack Loftus (32) and Mithun (24) built something of a recovery with a partnership of 43. It was then over to spinners Jason Summers (4-50) and Kuldeep Devatwal (3-19) to wreak havoc and only Salim Ahmed with 37no was able make a meaningful score as Madeley were dismissed for 131. The reply was started by fit again Maz Hasnain who has been sorely missed by Allscott in recent weeks, and after he departed for 23, and Summers for 30, Devatwal went through the gears with 62no and a 7 wicket win inside 20 overs of batting. 24 points for Allscott just the 2 for Madeley.
Callum Starling “we won the game in the first innings with a good effort in the field. We have had lots of injuries but it’s nice to have a fully fit XI, June was tough, but we can put it behind us and push on now”
