Wanstead and Snaresbrook Cricket Club

Wanstead & Snaresbrook CC

2019 Season Review

The 2019 season was another successful season for the 1^st XI, winning the Essex Dukes T20 Competition and finishing runners-up in the League for the second year running. The 1^st XI headed the League for long periods but could not hold off Brentwood CC in what was a two-horse race. The batting suffered from the absence of a number of senior players during the season due to injury and other factors. The leading run scorer was Tom Cummins with 542 League runs including his first League century. Bradley De Villers, Joe Ellis-Grewal and Aron Nijjar were the leading League wicket-takers, all taking 25 League wickets. A highlight of the season was the performances of 16-year-old Naïve Dwivedi and 17-year-old Robin Das. Naïve took his first 5 wicket 1^st XI haul while in only 11 League games Robin scored 538 runs, including 2 centuries.

The 2^nd XI had a roller-coaster season. For example in the first League game they were bowled out for 42 and then the following week won by 9 wickets chasing 236 with Adnan Akram and Karan Singh both scoring centuries. Although he only played 11 games the leading run scorer was Bilal Patel with 561 runs including 2 centuries and 3 fifties. Skipper, Issy Dar, scored 428 runs while Jack Lord had a good all-round season with 285 runs and 27 wickets. Young spinner Haaris Raza showed great promise with 24 wickets.

Having lost four of their first five games, the 3^rd XI were in the relegation zone for much of the season but eventually narrowly avoided relegation by just one point. The 3^rd XI struggled to score runs with Shoab Iqbal the leading run scorer with 326 runs, including one century. The bowling was led by Joel Morris-Ley with 26 wickets including a fine 5-17 to secure victory over Brentwood 3^rd XI. Ably led by Nofal Raja, with 531 runs and 17 wickets, the 4^th XI had a solid season. A pleasing feature of the season was the fine form of young Pavan Patel with 425 runs including his first League hundred.

After 4 years in the 3^rd XI Division Two, mainly playing against other clubs’ 3^rd XIs, the 5^th XI could not stave off relegation.  Apart from Alan Lord with 414 runs the 4^th XI batsmen struggled to score runs. The bowling was also led by Alan Lord with 27 wickets supported by young Harith Wajid with 22 wickets and Jonathan Mudhoo with 19 wickets. Dave Ramdial, captain, and Chris Ley, vice-captain, of the 6^th XI did a great job introducing a number of juniors to League cricket. A total of 34 players appeared for the 6^th XI. The leading run scorer and wicket taker were two new players to the club, William Davies, with 235 runs, and Yash Shah with 23 wickets.

The Ladies had a very successful season doing the double by winning the Middlesex Cricket Women’s F40 and T20 Leagues. They also won the six a side tournament for the fourth time in 6 years and the London Sixes Competition for the fifth time in 6 years.  There were notable performances from a number of the Ladies, particularly Zainab Khan, who finished as the League’s top run scorer and scored an amazing 197 against East Herts Ladies in an opening stand of 353 with Nanette Kritzinger, who scored 136 NO.  Saba Nasim was the League’s top wicket taker. The Ladies had a good combination of youth and experience with many new women taking up the game during the season.

A big thank you must go to all the captains as well as to those members who scored or umpired during the season.