Latest blog from Harold Wood’s Chris Bennett

Wednesday July 1 2015, a day to say ‘I was there’. Alongside where you were when President Kennedy was assassinated or when you found out about Princess Diana’s untimely death.

On July 1 2015, Henry Eades hit 123 not out.

Anyways, back to the proper cricket.

On Saturday the ones were overturned by Buckhurst Hill. The wait for the first win of the season continues unabated. An honourable mention goes to Burhan Mahmood for his belligerent 51 off 40 balls.

The twos were very happy to welcome back Zohran Afzal from his brief foray in the ones. He took up his usual role of 9 cheap overs and a day spent scoring.

As per usual, the second team finished extremely early, winning their game before 5pm. Four wickets each for Umair Khan and Luke Hammatt rolled Belhus for 153.

The total was chased down in 22 overs thanks to 50 in 20 balls from Craig Sampson whilst Glen Wooding and Pete Clarke both cruised to 40 odd not out.

The threes were turned over fairly comprehensively by league leaders Billericay as the opposition chased 175 in just 30 overs. This is a relatively minor blip with the third eleven still occupying a promotion slot.

Our fourth eleven kept up their promotion charge with yet another successful chase. Congratulations to Bilal Mohammed putting the rest of the club to shame with 70* to keep his average hovering around the 200 mark.

In addition to this, Ian Wooding made 50 whilst Murugesh Mohanasundharam’s swing bowling continues to baffle taking 4-40.

Finally on Saturday, the fives picked up another impressive victory. Keith Donovan’s 4-38 cleaning up the opposition whilst Steve Faram’s 72 took the fifths to victory.

All teams are now in extreme danger of getting promoted (aside from the ones obviously!). Congratulations to all involved in making it a successful season thus far, long may it continue!

On Sunday ‘The Whispering Wood’ took on ‘The Gold Standard’ in a battle of the blogs. Unfortunately, the Gold Standard’s Nicky Ison got me out but the Wood picked up the victory thanks to a powerful 111 from Maruf Chowdhury.

Harold Wood Cricket Club in conjunction with Simply Cricket is running a player of the weekend award throughout this season. Steve ‘The Wall’ Faram was awarded the prize for his 72.

He joins such illustrious names as a winner of the award as Ian Wooding, Anthony McManus, Liam Brooks, Chris Clarke and Richard Bonner.