Upminster upwardly mobile

Upminster clinched the ESL East Division title by inflicting a first Sunday defeat of the season on Jordan Harris's Sunday 1's. Despite carrying an unbeaten record into the game, the loss of valuable points by virtue of having had three games rained off meant that the Dagenham side ventured to the end of the District Line knowing that they needed to defeat Upminster and restrict them to 4 bonus points or less, a tall order given the absence of key players Kurt Whisker and Shane Barwick, both of whom have been regular Sunday performers this year.

In the event, a tremendous bowling performance, led by paceman Israel Ochwo who took 4-45, reduced Upminster to 74-5, before the home side dug in to post a total that all but confirmed their promotion. Ochwo made short work of openers Farid Butt and Smith and then knocked over the dangerous Shahbaz Butt for just 7. Kane Messenger then followed up to bowl Shafiq Rahman for a duck and when 15 year old Harry Jackson had Billy Gordon Caught for 30, Upminster had lost half their batting line-up. Fortunately for the hosts, promising colt Frank Hazel hit a composed 23 and in tandem with Nathan Woods, the pair added 59 for the 6th wicket.

Hazel’s dismissal saw another tumble of wickets as spinner Billy Smith picked up 2-26, but home skipper Ollie Peck struck a quickfire 25 to marshall his troops over the 200 mark before he was the last man to fall.

In response, the Goresbrook batting order was re-jigged with effective hopes of promotion dashed and promotions for Jackson, Craig Ivey and Joe Barwick failed to provide any impetus as they followed openers Bird and Irving back into the hutch, leaving Brook 5 down with just 22 on the board, Fisher with 3-10 and Gordon 2-11 doing the damage. It was left to skipper Jordan Harris (45) and Jordan Calverley (59) to salvage some respectability as Goresbrook’s innings meandered to 150-9 with Curtis (1-18) and Rahman (2-40) picking up the other wickets to fall.

Harris was philosophical after the match, “Congratulations to Upminster who deserved their win today, we gave it everything in the field and at 74-5 we felt that we could bowl them out for something that would have given us a realistic chance, but they put a couple of partnerships together and 201 was probably 40 or 50 too many.”

“We know that our Colts system produces cricketers who can compete with players in the upper echelons of the SNEL and Israel Ochwo was terrific today. My only disappointment was our lack of discipline with the ball, we were trying to throw everything at them, but 43 extras compared to their 6 would have cost us if the game had been a genuine winner takes all.”