Upminster captain Alan Ison is looking forward to coming up against former team-mates Frankie Hazel and Will Chuter when they take on Gidea Park & Romford this weekend.
Ison’s men make the short trip to Gallows Corner on Saturday as they look to build on their comfortable 154-run victory over Goresbrook last weekend.
And the skipper is expecting a ‘fun’ game against a good young side and his former Upminster team-mates.
“It should be a fun game, they’ve got a couple of our lads that used to play for us, Frankie and Will, so it will be good fun to play against them,” Ison said.
“They’re a good young team. I know their captain Jamal Francis as well, so it will be nice to come up against him as well as catching up with Frankie and Will.”
They head into the clash on the back of a big victory where they ramped up a score of 258-5 after winning the toss before bowling Goresbrook out for 104.
James Evans (117) top-scored for Upminster with skipper Ison (33) and youngster Callum Berry (60 not out) also chipping in.
“We won the toss, decided to bat and James got his first ton of the season and played really well,” Ison said.
“He’s come off a couple of low scores, so it was nice to see him get some big runs and also I got a decent start with 30-odd and then 14-year-old Callum come in and got 62 not out.
“He played really well, especially for his age, and I think he took 22 off one over, so that was really good to see.
“We were at 120-5 and them lads got us up to 258 with their partnership, so that was brilliant as well.”
Ison also praised Louis Pickering and debutant Ehsan Afzal for their bowling efforts in the match.
“Louis bowled really well, eight overs, 3-13, and that’s one of the best I’ve seen him bowl in a long while, it was really good, really controlled and he was unplayable at times,” he added.
“Ehsan played his first game in the first team and got 4-11, so that was good to see and it was a good all-round team effort with good batting, bowling, and fielding.”
Upminster lost out to Harold Wood in the Essex League T20 on Wednesday, with Ison making 54 as they came up short on 168-9 in reply to Wood’s 176-5.
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