Written by Andy Yeats - First team scorer
FHCC Last Day of the Season Round Up
The final day of the 2024 season saw all the Fives adult sides taking the field with very little riding on their matches.
The First XI made the short trip to Epping with the league title safely tucked under their belt. They had the luxury of not worrying too much about several notable absentees including skipper and vice-captain. As a consequence, 21-year-old Ben Yeats led the team for the first time and immediately proceeded to lose the toss and was forced to tell his teammates they’d been inserted to bat first on a very ‘interesting’ looking pitch.
For the opening phase all was rosy in the Fives garden as Feroze Khushi and the stand in skipper waltzed freely to 46-0 off 8 overs resulting in both Epping opening bowlers getting the hook. The game changed when spinner Sarkar found the under-edge of our Essex stars bat from a delivery that pitched halfway and kept low. Feroze departure for 28 was the catalyst for a challenging day with the bat for the boys with only Ed Fluck (24) able to play with any freedom.
Former Essex quick, Merv Westfield, did the damage with 3-16 and only a very handy last wicket stand between Aryan Gupta (27) and Mehad Khan (17*) took us to anything like a defendable score of 157 all out.
Epping made an electric start to their innings with former Bangladesh Test opener, Imrul Kayes, fluent in racing to 26 before Mustafa Kamal forced him into a false shot with Ben taking a fine diving catch at mid-off. With Epping in control and the game appearing to be lost the boys had some fun with a succession of players bowling for the first time this season and to be fair all looking pretty decent. Wickets tumbled to the part time offerings as Cradds, Huz and Owen Humphrey added to a brace from Bilal to leave Epping 6 down. Alas, at this point Epping started blocking as if their lives depending on it and eventually Merv Westfield decided enough was enough and put a couple over the long off boundary to conclude proceedings. Would be remiss not to mention Mehad, who bowled a fine opening spell without reward in the wickets column.
A second defeat of the season then but frankly nobody was that perturbed. I waxed lyrical about the boys last week but after the success of this season and what they’ve achieved as a group its worth repeating what a fabulous bunch of young cricketers they are. They’ve played outstanding cricket for the vast majority of the season and overcome the adversities placed before them. An absolute pleasure to spend the summer with them all. I’m certain though that the on-pitch achievements would not happen without the behind the scenes support and commitment of many at the club. To those slaving over teas, working all hours on the pitch, tidying up after a Saturday night, dealing with the league administration, recruiting players – a huge thank you. At the forefront of that cohort is Dean Humphrey who has worked tirelessly on a daily basis to make the First XI the success. From 7am starts on matchday, runs to the airport for the overseas, sorting out the damn Frogbox, helping Brad with the side to keeping players happy attired with ‘Promotion 2024’ T shirts and bucket hats. Deano – this wouldn’t have happened without you mate! Thank you.
At The Paddock the Second XI concluded with a comprehensive victory over Colchester to secure a 5th place finish. An excellent effort in the field led by R Allum (remarkable figures of 4-8) restricted the visitors to 134 all out. Mohammed Adams (45) and Jack O’Callaghan (28) ensured that was knocked off for the loss of just two wickets.
The Third XI secured a fourth placed finish in their division with a hammering of bottom of the table Harlow 4th XI. Batting first Fives made a colossal 352-8 with almost everyone scoring over 20 but led by Sandeep Pisharody with 78. Fine batting lads just got to work on the scoring for next season!!! (Cryptic joke from my role as Harlow Play Cricket Admin having to make sense of that scorebook late Saturday night). Harlow’s young side were no match for our side and Aamir Ali (5-18) ensured a massive winning margin despite Fives giving everyone a chance to turn their arm over.
The 4th XI also won their final match at home to Woodford Green. This was a low scoring nail biter with Fives first innings total of 148 all out not looking very defendable despite Zain Ali hitting 43. However, an outstanding bowling and fielding effort from the entire side saw them sneak the win by 11 runs as Green collapsed. Zahid Gul (2-16) did the early damage to the top order before Hasnain Imtiaz (3-24), Fazil Muhammed (2-27) and Asama Imitiaz (2-25) ensured the 20 points. A final league position of fourth place then and a strong season from the 4’s.
Thank you to all for your support of the club. Looking forward to the League Dinner and then Prem cricket in 2025. Cricket with TWO breaks for tea and cake – marvellous!!
Winter well. Andy
blew away allcomers during the first two thirds of the season dominating the division from the opening day hammering of rivals Billericay. They dealt with the shock early recall of overseas paceman Achille admirably. When in trouble someone always put their hand up and changed the course of the game. I can attribute wins to every single one of the side at some point of the campaign. Enormous credit to Brad Copper in his first season as captain who has not only led with his sparkling batting and bowling but created a team first mentality that all the boys bought into even during moments of individual frustration at lack of opportunity to shine as we dominated many games.
I know Brad would be the first to state publicly the debt of gratitude to Team Manager Dean Humphrey. He brilliantly took the off-field distractions away from Brad. Along with Steve Radford he recruited talented and ambitious lads from both the lower divisions and from the fringes of Prem sides where chances were limited. They moulded them into a genuine team with no international Test or ODI superstar pros like all our main rivals. Whatever this team achieve in the future we will always have 2024. What a season.
Saturday evening revelry was the order of the day post-match. Actually, better make that Saturday evening and Sunday morning revelry. Steve Poulter led the singing, Joe Radford proved unbelievably good at down-in-one, Ed Fluck (like every good Mancunian) turned into Liam Gallagher, Radders generously provided the pizza oven, there was a random but delicious cake, I found out the bar stock includes some mysterious pink and green drinks and was on the verge of being reported missing by Mrs Y, Brad was finding ways of avoiding Epping next week and Huz watched his innings on You Tube three times over. It was a great night.
Hopefully the three other Fives sides will forgive the First XI indulgence in this weeks report. In fairness there’s not a huge amount of good news left to come.
The 2’s were well beaten at Old Souths despite young Kabir making another excellent half century. The 3’s promotion hopes were ended with defeat at Billericay despite an outstanding century from Nikunj Agarwal. Likewise, the Fourth XI, beaten at Chingford, with 43 from the bat of Zahid Gul the highlight. Congratulations to all those sides for being highly competitive throughout the season with many individual performances to be proud of.
One week left. Pretty much all done and dusted – maybe with the exception of relieving Epping of the First XI Division One trophy whilst we’re on the premises next Saturday!!
COYF!!!