2026 SCCL Premier Division Round Up Week 19
By Matt Porter
WDL comes to an end, 3 WL games to go (4 for some) and all still to play for at both ends
Firstly I will start by saying that this week Jamie is rather busy and has asked me to fill those rather large shoes! Hopefully normal operations will resume next week and his name will be on the top of the article.
As per the headline, it is all to play for in the Premier division, we have 6 teams still in contention for the title. At the other end, we have 6 teams looking over their shoulders, this is especially compounded when we look above to the BDPCL and see that Worfield 1st XI are currently 54 points adrift of safety, are they going to be part of these articles next year?
Life in the old dog yet
Allscott Heath headed to Soulton Road to play Wem, this top table clash was always going to be pivotal for both teams, but it was the visitors that came away with 24 points. Having won the toss and chose to bat, Allscott Heath started terribly with opener Max Ferrington out and the score at 0 for 1! However, the old dog of Maisam Hasnain Jaffri was at the crease, and was joined by stand-in skipper Luke Thornton, who rallied to get the score up to 91 before the skipper departed for a well earned 47. The old dog continued and despite some excellent bowling from Tom Astley and Harry Astley, Maz prevailed and scored a majestic 107 to anchor the innings and give Allscott 192 runs to defend.
The Wem reply stuttered as they found themselves at 17-3, with Matthew Hutchings getting the prized wicket of Abhishek Reddy for a Golden duck! Josh Gough (32) and Tyler Ibbotson (32) helped to steady the ship. However, Wem wickets fell regularly and Matt Cohen was left on 31* whilst his team were all out for 146, Hutchuings with 2/38, Kuldeep Devatwal 3/24 and Jack Garmson 3/35.
I spoke to Allscott Chairman Jason Allen who said “It was a fantastic knock from Maz, and a top opening spell from Matt Hutchings to remove Sam and Reddy. Kully bowled tightly in the middle for us and it was great to see Jack Garmson do so well, especially with Luke injuring his back and unable to bowl seam.”
Baijnath the star of the show
It was all to play for at the Burway, as 12th placed side Newtown headed to 10th placed Ludlow. Ludlow won the toss and elected to bat with the openers Simon Fletcher and Sam Edwards seeing off the new ball to get to 35 before Fletcher was out for 19. However, the 2nd bowling change brought Nathan Smith to the attack with him ripping out numbers 2, 3 and 4 to leave Ludlow reeling. The hosts found themselves at 134-6 where it could have gone 2 ways! Up stepped Deon Patel (pictured) and Joe Williams. Deon scored a fluent 74 from 61, whilst Joe Williams managed 36* to help Ludlow to 221ao from their 50 overs. Jordan Bajnaith took 3/56 from 15, whilst the aforementioned Smith took 3/64 from 15.
The Newtown innings was very similar to the Ludlow, with the visitors finding themselves at 119-6, owing to some excellent bowling from Joe Williams 4-61. However, despite this chaos, the number 4 of Baijnath was still at the crease, where he was joined by Reino de Klerk. The latter hung around with Jordan, scoring 10* from 31, which allowed Jordan to carve the Ludlow attack apart, where he finished on 111* from 110 to see his side home by 3 wickets.
A valuable 25 points for Newtown who have done the double over Ludlow this year. Newtown are still 12th, but are now only 25 points off 10th placed Ludlow, can they pull off an escape?
A quick afternoon’s work
Over at Orleton Park, Wellington won the toss and elected to field against Shelton, where it was Oliver Smith that set the tone for the bowling attack, with him taking out opener Dan Walker (2) and Sam Nicholls (5). He linked up with Dave Laird who dismissed numbers 5, 6 and 7 for ducks to leave Shelton reeling at 28-6. Despite this there was some rallying from the tail with Ben Chambers (10) and Simon Jones (9) helping overseas star NavinduVithanage to salvage some runs. However, when Matthew Morris came into the attack, we nipped out the tail for 4/18 and left Navindu stranded on 53*Shelton all out for 100 in 29 overs. Wellington made no drama with the chase, and the opening pair Avijay Maharaj 36* and skipper Daniel Vaughan 50 getting 85 runs for the 1st wicket, when Vaughan departed, it was over to Jason Oakes to hit the winning runs and seal an easy 9 wicket win within 16 overs.
I spoke to Dan on Sunday morning, “Shelton were missing several key players and have been struggling with the bat so we bowled first which is a strategy that’s worked well in our run of winning 7 on the bounce now. Ollie Smith & Dave Laird opened up well, Shelton’s pro batted well for an unbeaten half century but 16 year old left-armer Matt Morris wrapped up the tail with a 4-fer. Overall a solid win and onto the bank holiday weekend double header with our replayed game vs Allscott Heath schedule for Monday”
Whitney and Wheldon, sounds like a law firm!
Current table toppers, Quatt headed to London Road to face 11th placed Shrewsbury 2nd XI knowing that they have to keep on winning if they want to stay top! Shrewsbury won the toss and elected to bat. The Shrewsbury top 4 will have been disappointed to have all started but not gone on to get more, however it was the middle order that bolstered the scoring with Harry Cooke and Rob Foster that helped the innings along. They put on over 70 for the 5th wicket, before Cooke was run out for 58. Rob Foster remained, getting a red inker of a dogged 50 from 79, helping his side to 221/6 from their 50 overs.
The Quatt openers started well putting on 41 before Nipun Karunanayake departed for 28. Tom Whitney was joined by Alex Biddle where they got the score up to 82, once again Whitney lost his partner as Biddle departed for 11. Eventually Whitney found his main partner for the day in Ryan Wheldon. The pair batted beautifully with a partnership of 129 to see Quatt over the line with 7 wickets to spare. Whitney finished on 95* from 103 and Wheldon on 63* from 85, giving Quatt a vital 24 points allowing them to remain top.
I spoke with Quatt captain Jamie Lunn, “A few changes for us yesterday with a much more youthful side, two 17 year olds making their debuts. We bowled and fielded well on a very good pitch, kept Shrewsbury down to what we believed 20/30 below par on that pitch. Batting we lost 3 earlish wickets but the experience and talent of Whitney and Wheldon really showed as their partnership saw us to victory.”
The Dragons roar is much louder than engines
Another team that needed to keep the wins up are St Georges, who played host to a somewhat resurgent Sentinel. The joy of WLD cricket is that it offers the carrot of 24 points vs 20, and this must’ve been in St Georges mind when skipper Mohammed Aqeeb won the toss and elected to bat first. He may have been rueing this decision when his openers went cheaply. However, St Georges bat deep and number 4 Anritpal Singh was the anchor of the innings scoring an impressive 120 from 102 balls. When he departed (thanks to Harry Thomas 3/51) the score was on 234 and it was danger man Zabiullah Safi that had one of his innings, to score 67 from 30 balls! The dragons had 292 on the board from 46 overs when they felt it was time to declare.
The Sentinel chase started fairly well, with Nick Bateup scoring a quickfire 33, with ample support from Muhammad Zaheer 22, but really it fell away too easily, as Shah Faiz had a day out claiming 5/36 from his 11 overs, ably supported by Ali Mustafa 2/29 and Faisal Khan 2/20. Alex Johnson was left on 30* as Sentinel were bowled out for 152 to give the dragons a 140 run win.
I spoke to club captain Faisal khan, “This is our best red ball season to date. Staying undefeated throughout. Batting first we were in some trouble with all the big names in the shed but Amritpal stood tall scoring his maiden 100 for the dragons. Bowling wise everyone chipped in but the man of the hour was Shah Fiaz. A fantastic red ball campaign staying undefeated throughout is some achievement. We have 3 games left. Our aim is to win them all and see where we end up. Overall a great season with the red ball.”
Kunal the Hour, Kunal the Man (I’ll fetch my coat)
In North Shropshire, both teams were desperate for a win, with the hosts Whitchurch wanting to get into the mix for the title, and the visitors Madeley trying to survive again. The visitors won the toss and elected to field, Whitchurch started fairly well getting to 54/1 before skipper Mike Rbinson departed for 25. All looked calm but suddenly wickets were falling at regular intervals and suddenly Whitchurch were at 120-8. Up stepped number 10 Kashif Hussain, who in combination with Kunal Dabbas put on 96 for the 9th wicket, eventually Kashif was out for 44 and Kunal top scored for a gritty 61* to get Whitchurch up to 218/10 from 49.2, the surprise bowler was the venerable Madeley 3rd XI Skipper Lol Woodhall with a solid 3/37 from his 11 overs.
The Madeley reply never got going as Kashif Hussain linked up with Shabbir Khan to tear apart the Madeley batting line up, where they finished on 3/12 and 3/15 respectively. Alex Holland offered some resistance for the visitors with a determined 27 from 53, but when he went they eventually ended up all out for 116. Another crucial 24 points that keeps the Heath Road men just about in the title mix.
Summary
Firstly, my apologies for the headlines! We head to week 20, and the return of Win Lose cricket where the top 6 sides all play the bottom 6 sides knowing that they must continue to win to keep up the pressure. For the bottom 6, a surprise win will be massive, and could stop them facing the drop, can an upset happen?
In addition, Jamie may delay his report to Tuesday, as of course, Wellington and Allscott Heath, replay each other on August Bank Holiday Monday. Quatt and St Georges will be praying for rain, however if 3rd placed Wellington win on both Saturday and Monday, then they will potentially be 8 points clear at the top with 1 hand on the trophy!
