October 2025

Another enjoyable season with mainly tough competitive matches. We kicked-off with Robbie Book’s President’s match at his club, Totteridge Millhillians CC. With Robbie’s son Alex captaining the ‘Select XI’ team, and with few players from his club, it was a sort of CCC v CCC match. The boundary was ‘peppered’ throughout the match. 

Unfortunately, Wanstead CC double-booked their ground for v World Sports Xchange, so one of strongest matches didn’t happen. 

 The next 2 matches were against County 2nd XI’s. Club cricketers do not practice T20 cricket, whereas Hampshire CCC do. Similar to last year we lost both T20’s on the day, performing much better in the second. Several of the Hampshire players featured in the Blast later in July. 

 50 over cricket is better for us, and we had a comfortable win against a young Essex CCC 2nd XI. Both counties appreciate these matches, as practice & development fixtures. These are the matches that our cricketers value. 

 A strong Australian Crusaders touring side defeated us at Acton CC, the day after v Essex 2’s. We had a totally different team. 

 The match against The Army CC was probably the only occasion that the CCC have had a tied match. These are usually close matches, and we let them score 30 plus for their 10th wicket. (bother !) A run out of their number 10 going for the second run from the final ball, resulted in the tie (218 each in 50 overs). 

 And then a last over loss v MCC at Beckenham CC. Muhammed Hassan Hameed of Wanstead CC dominated our innings of 219, with 105*. I had ‘money’ on another tie, as MCC just got there off the penultimate ball of the match, with 9 wickets down (bother again !!) 

 For the U-25 match against an Emerging Zimbabwe U-25 touring side it was always going to be difficult to assess their strength. I totally underestimate them. One of the quickest seamers I have seen at Teddington CC, blew our top order batting away. But more impressively was their fielding. We only scored 128, and they got them for 3 wickets down. 

 More ‘bother’ as Free Foresters Academy chased down our 264, to win, this time off the final ball, and with 9 wickets down, at Potters Bar CC. 

 We were too relaxed for the President’s XI match at South Hampstead CC to celebrate their 150th , and instead of going on to score 240+, a batting collapse saw us dismissed for 208. They got them for 4 wickets down, with 2 overs of the 40, to go. 

 Our final match of the season was a rain postponed from late July to late August, U-25 XI v Sharks Academy at Stanmore CC. This time we batted more sensibly; for 230/5 in 40 overs. Muhammed Hassan Hameed 85. Sharks had two ‘regular CCC batters, Hamza Ahmed (60) and Baber Choudhary (67), and for a while held the upper hand. However calm spin bowling from Arjan Nahar of Acton CC (5/24), & Yash Lakharni of Slough CC (3/30) triggered a Sharks batting collapse in the final overs. 

 Our ‘star’ player of the season was the afore mentioned, Muhammed Hassan Hameed. 347 runs in 6 innings, plus bowling a full set of 10 overs in each match. CCC Coach, Mark Stear has recommended him to both Essex CCC & Middlesex CCC. Recent CCC players who are now with Counties are Kashif Ali (Luton Town & Indians CC) with Worcester CCC, Ben Compton (Richmond CC) with Kent CCC, and Daniel Moriarty (Aston Rowant CC) first with Surrey CCC, now with Yorkshire CCC. 

 CCC Competitions 

 The finals of both competitions followed the pattern set in some of our representative matches. Close, exciting results. Both finals succumbed to wet weather, in a dry season. 

 Overnight rain slightly delayed the start of the Sovereign Trophy final at Banstead CC, and the South East Shires CL captain had no hesitation in putting the NCL (National Cricket League) team into bat. It was tough going for them, with the normal free-scoring Hamza Ahmed having to wait until after drinks to reach his 50. The SESCL bowlers kept the pressure on through-out. NCL scored 206, but didn’t but their overs out. And that in the end probably cost them the match. The SESCL batters similarly struggled, and it took a defiant captain, Zahid Ali Khan, with a mixture of aggression & protecting the tail (out for 58 with 1 over to go), to see his team win off the penultimate ball. 

 Terrible weather was a prospect for the final of The Conference Cup for the Bertie Joel Trophy at Bishop’s Stortford CC. The radar said heavy rain around 3pm, so a shortened 30 over per innings match with no lunch break was agreed on. Again, win the toss, win the match ?. And that was what Hornchurch did. East Molesey made a decent score of 199/6, but lost wickets in the final 6 overs before partnerships could build & push-on. It was not plain sailing for Hornchurch as the rain came in during the second half of their chase, they lost wickets, and DLS was alternating between the teams. 52 runs from 4 overs for only 1 wicket, settled the match with 1 complete over to spare. Cricket was the winner !!.