2026 SCCL Premier Division Round Up Week 17
By Jamie Dowley
Dragons “Double Whammy” Draw proves costly while Jones ‘7fer’ extends Quatt lead.
Madeley and Sentinel are big winners in Relegation scraps
St George's pathway to a first SCCL title since 2003 has significantly narrowed with two key miscalculations in an ultimately frustrating afternoon for them at Church Road against Whitchurch. Batting first they found runs easy to come by on a flat wicket with Waqas Ahmed (29) and Charitha Kumarasinghe (24) laying a platform for another marvellous innings from Ashish Ashish who blitzed 148 off just 81 balls, the Indian pro is now the leading run scorer in the division and here he showed his class, ably supported by Amritpal Singh (41), KJ Sullivan (28) and Ali Mustafa (26no). The Whitchurch bowlers stuck at the task, with 16 year old Ollie Dyson impressing in taking 3-79 , while Shabbir Khan is the first bowler to 40 wickets in the Premier this season with 3-100 here. The home total of 345-7 looked a mammoth one with the lack of a declaration somewhat surprising shall we say. The visitors did lose 2 early wickets but Mike Robinson and Kunal Dabas both got stuck in adding 130 for the 3rd wicket but when Robinson departed for 79 to leave Whitchurch 139-3 with 21 overs left, the Dragons had a sniff of victory. Mohammed Aqeeb rotated his bowlers with Babar Khan impressing with 3-67, but with Dabas holding firm as wickets fell around him, he unselfishly gave up his century to see out the 50th over and end on 94no as Whitchurch ended on 250-9. The match points of 18-7 became 15-10 due to an 18 run penalty to St Georges for a slow over rate, to further harm their title credentials, as they fall 22 points behind leaders Quatt.
Down in South East Shropshire the aforementioned leaders were missing several key performers but still had way too much for Newtown on an afternoon where veteran slow left-armer Gareth Jones showed why he is still one of the best exponents of that typing of bowling in the county. The visitors elected to bat first and with Jamie Lunn holding an end up, Jones was able to bowl unchanged from the other to produce magnificent figures of 15-5-39-7 with none of the Newtown bats being able to cope with his excellent control of lines and lengths. Only Nathan Smith with 22 showed willing in a score of 84 with Charlie Wheldon also taking 2-16 at the death. Quatt didn’t hang around in the reply, Nipun anchoring the innings with 21no while Ryan Wheldon, back up the order, with a point to prove, struck a swashbuckling 57no as the hosts were done and dusted inside 14 overs and another maximum 24 pts.
A first century of the season for Shropshire opener Harry Chandler (pictured) was the backbone of a superb all-round team display for Wem against bogey team Ludlow. Batting first the visitors to the Burway put on 95 for the first wicket and once Sam Peate had departed for 43, and Abhishek Reddy 25, Chandler and Josh Gough came together for a fine 114 partnership for the 3rd wicket. When Gough fell for 65, the middle and lower order chipped in with late runs, so much so that when Chandler departed for 117, Wem had amassed 335-8 off 50. As usual, Luke Miles and Joe Williams bowled their 15, but even they couldn’t escape punishment, Miles taking 4-100 and Williams 3-102. The reply for the hosts was very much a “not lose” approach and having reached 97-2 they were well placed to avoid defeat. The game changed when captain Reddy introduced himself and Ralph Davies, the youngster fresh off another outstanding performance in Shropshire age group cricket, picked up the big scalp of Nathan Engelbrecht, as the South African departed for home having passed the 700 run mark with 52. Davies then followed it up, trapping Will Sparrow LBW for 30, and with Reddy bowling Luke Miles for 30 , the pair ran through the rest of the line up in short order. Reddy with 3-37, but it's Davies who takes the headlines with 5-51, to take his side back to 2nd place.
An outstanding new ball spell by David Laird ripped the heart out of the Allscott Heath batting and ensured his Wellington side had a comfortable afternoon at Orleton Park. The pace bowler steamed in to take the first 5 wickets, leaving the visitors reeling at 32-5, before Max Ferrington and Carl Starling (both 20) got the scoreboard moving. Matthew Morris (2-25) and Josh McDonald (2-38) then complemented Lairds (5-23) to clean up the innings at 118ao, a total that in form home captain Dan Vaughan made half of as he scored a fluent 59, before Jason Oakes saw his side home with 38no. A big win for Wellington against a side who did the double over them in 2025, and with the game in hand against Allscott on Bank Holiday Monday, they head to Quatt next week knowing a win will put them back in pole position for a 3rd title in 4 years.
Sentinel were absolutely desperate for a win at home to Shelton and their batting line up duly delivered a season's best performance making 276-6 off 50 overs, a total that went a long way to ensuring just a 3rd win of the campaign. Tom Griffiths is enjoying another good red ball campaign and here he made 70, while in form Muhammed Zaheer struck 72. With Connor Cheshire (43) and Ed Ashlin (23no) adding runs late on, the visiting bowlers didn’t go unscathed but Sam Griffiths hung in for 3-71, Ross Griffiths took 2-63, while the pick of the attack was probably Simon Jones who went wicketless at 3 an over. The Shelton reply just never really got into the chase, they lost early wickets and while Dan Walker (24) and Navindu Vithanage (22) did briefly threaten, it was left to Saleh Ahmed and Jack Morris to try and see out a draw. That they were doing pretty nicely until spinners Alex Johnson and Matty Cliffe were introduced, and once Cliffe had removed Ahmed for 58, the pair cleaned out the lower order as numbers 9,10 and 11 all departed for ducks to leave Morris stranded on 23no at 172ao. Cliffe ended on 3-14, Johnson 2-27 while earlier there had been a brace apiece for Shane Gwilt and Jacob Binnersely. A massive derby win for the Engines and they will look to do the same again next week at home to Shrewsbury.
With 2 teams looking baked in for relegation and a 3rd very possible, the match between Shrewsbury 2nds and Madeley was vital for both sides and in a tense and nervy contest it was the latter who showed once again why they are relegation escapologists par excellence. Losing Krrish Chada to the first ball of the match probably wasn’t in Shrewsbury's mind when they elected to bat first and while Kieran Gill (22) and George Hughes (33) made contributions, a total of 126ao didn’t look especially competitive. For Madeley, Martin Boyle with 4-47, Bas Ahmad with 3-20 would have pleased captain Mithun who himself weighed in with 2-30 off 13 overs. The run chase was all going swimmingly at 60-1 with Anil Kumar and Bas Ahmad going well but when the former fell for 36 to the impressive George Jenkins, the game turned. Jenkins quickly followed up with 4 more wickets (5-28) and at 80-5 and then 106-6, nerves would have been on full display on the away benches. It was left to Bas Ahmad to keep his cool and his 31no did see Madeley home, a 5th win of the season for the men from Park Street and everyone's pre season favourites for relegation are finding a way to survive once again.
So we head into the last 5 weeks of the season and no game has been bigger this year than Quatt v Wellington. A win or a draw for the hosts will give them one hand on the title, while defeat will make Wellington odds on favourites to retain their title. It could be a classic.
