James Pettifer Memorial Game a great success

The teams for the James Pettifer Memorial Match

Hundreds came down to Meadvale Road on Sunday to celebrate the life and legacy of James Pettifer, ten years on from his tragic passing.

With six Brentham first XI captains, and an Ealing one in Luke Stoughton, the standard was also going to be befitting of the cause and so it proved as the Rajiv Patel XI defeated the Ryan Pettifer XI in a close-fought contest.

Anchored by 50 at the top of the order from Paul Whelan, 35 in the middle from Rajiv Patel, and useful contributions of 25 and 21 respectively from Imran Hamidon and Ciaran Brett, the Rajiv Patel XI posted a creditable 202-8 off 40 overs.

With the ball, Ryan Pettifer’s XI shared the wickets between Jack Solomon (2-29), Yogi Prabhu (1-29), Alex Watson (1-15), Tom Brandreth (1-25), and Luke Stoughton (1-34)

An already high standard took another notch up in the second innings. Sahil Patel and Jamie Mansi both took outrageous catches as the Ryan Pettifer XI found themselves in trouble at 70-5.

However, from there Luke Stoughton threatened to take over. He blasted 74 off 61, in partnerships of 66 with Ryan Pettifer (22) and 36 with Jack Solomon to leave 25 needed off the last three overs.

His innings was ended by another excellent catch, this time by Luke Budden off Tom Barry before Ciaran Brett (3-35) wrapped up the innings with two wickets in two balls, both well held by Luke, to complete a 19-run victory.

Jamie Mansi (3-24) was the star with the ball while Pratyesh Desai (2-17), Sahil Patel (1-26), and Tom Barry (1-33) also chipped in with wickets.

On top of a great day of cricket, Sunday saw more than £1000 raised for the Cardiac Risk in the Young Charity.

Despite some creaking backs, plans are already well in hand for next year’s game!

Sunday’s other action saw our club XI beat Belhus CC in a high-scoring encounter on The Village Green.

Batting first, we amassed 313-5 from our 40 overs, built around half-centuries from Ashfaq Ahmed (64), Pravin Jadhav (69), and Meet Goswami (64).

The hosts gave it a good go in reply. Their top four all passed 30 but we kept chipping away with wickets. Hemen Mehta (2-28) picked up the important scalp of Louis Malley for 89 as Belhus eventually fell behind the rate to finish on 278-7 off their 40 overs.

Atif Shah (2-67), Imran Raza (1-31), Ayaz Khan (1-35), and Pravin Jadhav (1-49) took the other wickets to fall.

Saturday’s action saw wins for the 3s and 4s but defeats for the 1s and 5s.

James Hitchcock returned from injury to guide the 3s to a convincing 10 points over Winchmore Hill at William Perkin.

Making the most of perfect batting conditions, we racked up 277-7 off our 45 overs.

Daniel Taylor continued his fine form with 70. Sharing a second wicket stand of 114 with Paul Whelan (51), the pair set up a perfect launchpad for a late blitz.

Matt Plews hit 30 but the real fireworks came courtesy of Vijay Pamu’s 16-ball 33 - 57 runs flowing from the final 5 overs.

Chris Jones (2-27) and Ciaran Brett (1-51) made early inroads, reducing the visitors to 37-3. Tom Barry (1-21) then ended a 59-run fourth wicket stand before the spinners took over.

Deen Hoque (2-21) and Jayraj Jadeja (4-26) shared the final six wickets in a 120-run victory.

Sitting second on 32 points, we head to eighth-placed Wembley on Saturday.

Our 4s won a low-scoring contest on a difficult pitch against SKLPC to move up to fourth.

There was no doubting who Brentham’s star was, Marcus Bethel carrying his bat for an unbeaten 57 in an innings where nobody else passed 16.

He dragged us up to 120 all-out which, ultimately, proved far too much for the winless hosts.

The damage was done early with SKLPC 18-6 and 43-8 before ultimately subsiding for 71.

Yogesh Solanki (4-29) and Richard Taper (4-36) were the ones to do that early damage before Pratyesh Desai came on to wrap things up with the very impressive figures of 0.1-0-0-1.

Second-place Ealing Trailfinders make the very short trip to William Perkin this weekend.

The 1s were beaten on the road at Harrow Town, the total of 215 not enough to defend at Rayners Lane.

In truth, at 112-0 and 176-4, our sights should have been set higher than 215 but the hosts managed to pull the game back in the latter stages of our first innings.

Lucas Smith (47), Aadil Khan (44), and Meet Goswami (42) all got good starts but none were able to go on a play the match-defining knock as we lost our last six wickets for 39 runs.

Captain Jack Solomon (1-39) again struck with his first ball as we made the perfect start. A run-out and an Atif Shah (2-58) wicket had Town in trouble at 34-3 but that was as good as it got.

Sanjay Mishra (113*) and Neelambuj Vats (69) put on 149 for the fourth wicket, setting the home side up for a six-wicket win.

This weekend the 1s host fourth-placed Highgate.

Having won by nine wickets last weekend, the 5s were on the receiving end this week away at Barnes.

Batting first at Barn Elms, nobody got into double figures as we were rolled for 54. Barnes took just eight overs to knock off the runs. Christian Ladwa (1-24) providing the lone bright spot for Bhavin Raniga’s side.

The 5s host third-placed Actonians this weekend while the 2s return to action following their Osterley bye away at Hornsey.