Aris & Mohammed see off UCS

Jesters CC 176 all out (Aris 61, Doward 30)

UCS Old Boys 134 all out (Mohammed 4-13)

Won by 42 runs

Despite collapsing from 145-2 to 176 all out in the 36th over of a 40 over contest, we recovered to defeat UCS Old Boys by 42 runs on a spicy early season deck at the University College School Playing Fields in West Hampstead.

Stalwarts Ollie Doward and Robbie Hudson put on 61 for the first wicket before Arran Aris played the stand-out knock of the day, a fluent 61 of his own on a pitch that was a lively shade of green and frequently up and occasionally down! Both Ollie (over long off) and Arran (over square leg) cleared the ropes before the dramatic collapse, with the opposition captain Ian Chapman picking up his fifth wicket by pinning Phil Berman lbw to end the innings prematurely.

Spicy

The hosts were quickly in trouble after tea. Adnan Mohammed cleverly let a catch through his fingers at first slip which happily led to a slick run out by skipper Sahil Kher. Debutant Josh Taylor rattled the timbers twice and Mohammed picked up two quick wickets coming on first change. However, with the score 45-5 off 18 overs, UCS pair Manzoor and Ward (51) dug in and steered the home side to 120-5 before Adnan and the lively Divi Bhartiya returned to snap up two wickets apiece and the innings fell away. Adnan finished with figures of 8-1-13-4. Special mention also to Phil Berman for his mean opening spell of 7-1-16-0. And we were even treated to a few overs of Alex Smith's lesser spotted leg spin!

And finally many thanks to UCS for having us for this excellent new fixture and to new Jesters President Ranald Phillips, a UCS Old Boy himself, for his support on the boundary edge.

Jesters XI: Kher (c), Hudson, Doward, Aris, J Taylor, Bhimjiyani, Bhartiya, Varma (wk), A Smith, Mohammed, Berman