On Saturday the 3s made the long journey to the south side of the river to play bottom of the table Richmond 4s. On what was forecast to be a sunny day was in reality very overcast, and the wicket looked green, patchy, unrolled but firm. I would have bowled but as is generally the case it was a good toss to lose and we were batting, in the pre-match team talk 150 was noted as a competitive score. We lost Vraj early, but after that we were able to put partnerships together and started going at 7/8 runs and over without ever forcing the issue. Rye was the beneficiary of a drop at slip off the opening bowler, a skied pull shot which landed between the bowler and mid off who both looked at each other as the ball dropped to the ground, and then an adjacent lbw appeal which was 'going down' according to umpire Puneet. Still Rye made the most of those lives and went through to a maiden Kenton century as we posted a very good total of 326/9 off 45 overs, with a cameo from debutant Abhishek hitting 23* (11) mostly off the final over. Job half done.

In reply the captain wanted to bowl the oppo out for the original target of 150 and Prish duly got to work, taking 2 wickets in his second over, the second of which is my nomination for ball of the season, starting on middle/middle and leg, then swinging away to clip the top of off stump. After that Richmond never looked like threatening our total, though their captain did put up some resistance before Abhishek had him caught at cover. Speaking of Abhi, he took 4 wickets on his 2025 3rd team debut to go with his 23*, well played Abhi. Prish also took 4 and was kept on to get his 5fer which didn't come, although was deserved for his bowling performance. Zaki and Pranav came on to finish the job, taking a wicket each, ensuring victory by 241 runs.

Tougher challenges await in the final two games, but good to get back to winning ways and being back in the promotion places. Bring on Highgate (h) next week.