Happy Tuesday to you all! I wrote at the end of one of these last week saying that I hope football came home by the time I was writing this one, and of course it did not. At least the Argentinians lost ay, Falkland Islands is still British and all that. Did not know this place existed until Tuesday but anyways... onto more serious things, our weekend results!

Enfield CC 1st XI vs Kenton CC 1st XI

The 1s travelled to Enfield, kicking off their cricket week in support of the Ruth Strauss Foundation. The boys were looking to make it 3 wins in a row and were batting first after skipper Dylan Assani lost the toss. Division 2's leading run scorer Viraj Patel flicked their opening bowler for 6 before he nicked him off and was sent off with a kiss. Hem Shah kept going strong and was battling tough conditions. He brought up his first 1st XI MCCL 50 off 81 balls. A vital knock given the circumstances. Important 25 (68) from Roshan Patel and 27 (42) in his 150th 1s Kenton MCCL appearance from Kalpesh Kerai (Musa's hero) meant we got up to a somewhat respectable 170 all out. Congratulations to Kalpesh on his appearance milestone; he would have done it slightly sooner, probably the same game as Charlie Erdwin, but little Dhruv came along (such a cute baby by the way), and he had to take a few weeks off. Hopefully Dhruv is also able to play 150 games for the 1s in the future; he's got one of the best to learn off! Charlie got the bowling innings underway, trapping their opener lbw. Skipper Dylan then took the poles of the other opener and returned the kiss he gave to Viraj. Little bit of a love triangle going on here; I wonder who Mr Ben Fraser will want to couple up with out of the two of them. From this point onwards it was the spin of Hem and Kalpesh that bamboozled the Enfield batters. Top fielding work from Roshan Patel with an important run-out, a bullseye throw to his beloved brother Viraj behind the stumps (how wholesome) and Qudratullah Khiyal with a fantastic catch helped us win a nail-biter. The final wicket was a real Shannon Gabriel "Why did he do that?!" moment with only 4 runs needed for a winning draw. Kalpesh finished with 4-37 and was running off to celebrate all over the place, catch him if you can! And Hem with 3-59 to bring him to 28 for the season. Win by 17 runs and a genuinely massive 12 points. Massive shoutout too to the boys who donated towards Enfield's cause; we really do have some good eggs at the club (Quite literally speaking, in the form of Charles Erdwin and Roshan Patel).

Scorecard:https://kenton.play-cricket.com/website/results/7258391

Kenton CC 2nd XI vs West Harrow CC 2nd XI

The 2s hosted West Harrow and were batting first after skipper Dilan Wanniarachchi won the toss. Once again for the 2s, the batting faltered and despite Rajiv Soneji's fighting 30 (59), we could only manage 133 all out. Prithvi Nakrani breathed absolute fire with the new ball to give the boys some hope. A wicket on the very first ball, caught by Saif Butt, who we will get onto later on in this article, followed by 2 more wickets for Prithvi quickly had WHCC 15/3 at one point. He ended with 6-62 in 12.4 overs, a proper spell, and I am sure the young, extremely tall man will reward himself with a couple of Hinge dates this week. Pranav Shah also chipped in with 2-24 in 5 overs, but WHCC scampered over the line 9 down. Loss by 1 wicket.

Scorecard: https://kenton.play-cricket.com/website/results/7259066

Kenton CC 3rd XI vs Eastcote CC 3rd XI

The 3s hosted Eastcote and were bowling first after stand-in skipper Karsh Patel lost the toss. Raj Parmar got us on the board before Ankit returned to the side with 2 wickets in 2 balls to end with 2-20 before Roshan Madhaparia scalped 2 wickets himself to end with 2-35. Eastcote declared on 224/7 after 46 overs. Neel Patel top scored in the chase with 79 (106), but nobody else could really get going. Zakirullah Khiyal stuck around with him for a while before he was dismissed. Raj Parmar hit a few big shots and remained not out on 23 (27), but the 3s were defeated. They were 3.2 overs away from the draw, but unfortunately the fame has gotten to him and TikTok megastar Dhiresh Kanji was not in the side to help get the job done. Loss by 44 runs.

Scorecard: https://kenton.play-cricket.com/website/results/7259545

Hampstead CC 5th XI vs Kenton CC 4th XI

The 4s travelled to take on Hampstead 5s and were batting first after skipper Deepak Singh lost the toss. Skipper Deepak’s target was 200, and 200 all out were the 4s with Sahil Goswami top scoring with 46 (41), of course hitting a couple of huge sixes along the way. The bowling attack was spearheaded by the experienced Jameel Shah, who’s 5-62, bowling with incredible heart and at full throttle from one end, supported by Jaisal Jansari's 2-33 and Hiten Kara's 2-8, got the job done, just about. The lads will definitely be working on containing E.Xtras next time out. Jameel was unhappy about being taken off after just a couple of overs last week, and I think skipper Deepak was scared of being shouted at again, so he just let Jimmy bowl. Big win for the 4s by 13 runs.

Scorecard: https://kenton.play-cricket.com/website/results/7259904

St Albans CC CV XI vs Kenton CC CV XI

The CV side were away to St Albans and were bowling first after skipper Hem Shah lost the toss. Rahil Patel got us going with the first breakthrough, getting one to nip back sharply and take the batsman's leg stump. He would have been relieved after the same batsman nicked him off first ball of the game. Anish Kerai, Rishabh Desai and Zakirullah Khiyal, who got a wicket with the first ball of his spell, all ended with 2 each, but SACC got 296 all out. The boys would have been disappointed with this mainly because they did not field the greatest. However, skipper Hem turned into Ravi Jadeja, for about 30 seconds, at square-leg, one stump to aim at, boom, bullseye, see you later champ! One interesting moment in particular was Dilan Wanniarachchi turning into Loris Karius in the 2018 UCL final, dropping genuinely the easiest catch of all time. The man is prime David De Gea when the camera is on though; if you saw his catch vs Harrow for the 2s, which is up on the socials, you would know what I mean. I'm only allowed to talk about this drop like this because literally 2 balls later the batsman played the exact same shot and the ball ballooned up to Chich. Genuine heart-in-mouth moment, but he held on this time. The batting was all about one man who I am incredibly happy for and proud of, Saif Butt, who brought up his first ton for the club. Saif played a completely chanceless innings for his 116 (114) batting at 3, hitting 17 fours and a six. Although he did absolutely barbecue Rahil Patel in the process but now is all forgiven. He brought his ton up with a glorious drive, with no one happier at the time than non-striker Raj Parmar. Actually, his bestie Devesh Kerai, watching on from the sidelines in tears, probably was happier. Saif is a top top bloke to have around at the club, always there to motivate teammates, although his on-field chat seems to just consist of violating his own teammates. Coming through our colts system, we as a club could not be more proud of Saif, and hope there are many more tons to come. I am sure his father, Sohail Butt, was extremely proud of his son, although Saif claims he did not care. Fatherly love, ay! He was supported by young Devhm Parekh's first 50 for the club, who ended on 52 (56). Congrats to you too, Devhm! Unfortunately, it wasn’t enough, and the boys were defeated. Loss by 43 runs.

Scorecard: https://kenton.play-cricket.com/website/results/7231294

A decent weekend for the lads with 24 points picked up on Saturday and a 6-4 England win to wrap up the night, I am sure Jonny Rye was pleased about that! Team of the week out on the Instagram, go have a gander at that and see you all next week!