Our 1s headed over to Wembley on the back of two excellent performances, despite the results, and it really felt like we were taking big steps in the right direction. So, when we won the toss and elected to bat, we hoped for a good start. Losing opener Joe Naughton to the second ball of the innings was not what we had in mind. However, we steadied the ship until 68-2 became 68-5. With captain Tony Sayers at the crease, Connor Brown joined him. The two of them put on 107 for the 6th wicket with Connor (16) ably holding up one end while Tony put on another show. Tony eventually fell for 136 (off 75 balls), guiding us to a reasonable 237.
The worry at tea was that perhaps we'd left them far too many overs - we'd only used up 38 of the alloted overs.
In their innings, Wembley made a steady start. They had several starts and mini-partnerships which looked to be taking them well on their way to the victory. Rhett Wallbridge (20-2-75-3) bowled excellently throughout the middle overs, keeping things tight and building pressure. But, at 179-5, things were looking a little worrying. At 218-7, with Nicolas Owen 76* at one end, things were looking even worse. But, then came the big breakthrough as Rhett claimed the scalp of Owen for 80. This was followed by Nick Jackson grabbing two wickets in two balls to wrap up the innings and claim the first victory of the year for the 1s. A top result!

Unfortunately, our 2s could not match the 1s success, as they hosted Ealing Hanwellians. Batting first, we reached 220 in 55 overs, with Tom Horne (70) getting some runs for the first time in a while. Unfortunately, on what is generally a very good batting surface this was probably several runs short of a strong total.
Despite some early wickets and a little early pressure, a strong middle order partnership pushed Ealing Hanwellians towards victory and ultimately proved enough, as they won by 5 wickets.
A few more positive signs but work to do for the 2s.

The 3s, however, bounced back well from a disappointing result in Round 5. In an early season top-of-the-table clash, we faced off against Highgate. Highgate elected to bat first and our bowlers set about building early pressure and taking early wickets. A middle-order recovery threatened to build a good total but we were able to drag things back and take key wickets at key times. We managed to hold them to 186-7 from 50 overs.
In reply, our captain, Zeeshan Munir (56), got us off to a great start with M. Tufiqul Hossain (36). With the foundations laid, our middle order all got starts and combined to get us over the line as we finished 192-5 from 28.4 overs. The 3s roared back from last week's disappointment with a big win.

On Sunday, we hosted SOAS in a friendly at Lincoln Road. We batted first scoring 191-7 from 30 overs - Tom Horne grabbing 62 and Noorullah Maroof smashing 52. In reply, our bowling kept it tight and we bowled them out for 147. A good Sunday game.

Thanks, again, this week to Club stalwart, Phil Marshall for his sponsorship of this round of fixtures. His generous support is greatly appreciated.