Friday scorecard 
As the storm clouds gathered overhead on a humid Friday lunchtime the visiting Batteresea Badgers gathered on the outfield of Carlos Perez waiting for their hosts BICC to arrive. Like all visiting teams they were keen to inspect the pitch and warm up in the late autumn sunshine. 

The toss was won/decided and BICC chose to bowl first, new skipper Mishmash taking the first over from the football ground end, was slapped for a couple of fours to set the tone for the Badgers. Second bowler was none other than the crocophile man himself, to bowl some accurate poison darts as if he was back in the Zambian jungle once more. Simon got the first wicket and ended with the nice figures of 2/14 off 4 overs. Mishmash meanwhile found his line and length finishing with the tidy figures of 0/15 from 3 overs. 

New boy Kunal entered the fray with an expensive first over but like his captain made up for it with the next couple of overs ending up with 0/19 from 3 overs. Suraj came on for an over and bagged a wicket with 1/10, removing Badgers opener C.Knight who looked in good form, with a great caught and bowled. While all this was going on the BICC fielding was looking sharp, Ed aka golden arm/ the Somerset sniper waded into the action with a run out with only one stump to aim at that would have Ponting creaming his pants. As if that's not enough for one man, Ed comes onto bowl and takes a screamer of a caught and bowled as casually as a man who's just been handed an ice cream. Golden arm finished with 2/12 from 3 overs.The badgers run rate was under control now, so who better to bring on than Caspar "are nets still on this week" to bowl a couple of more controlled overs, finishing with 0/17. Next new player Will bagged his first BICC wicket first over and got 1/16 from his 2 overs. Club legend Wild Bill turned his arm over for 2 overs, 0/12.

Battersea Badgers 118/7

Opening the innings for BICC was Umer and Suraj, both looking assured the first few overs with Suraj pulling a couple of his sixes like he was swotting a pesky fly out the way. Looking to dispatch a full toss into plaza España, Suraj missed and was out LBW for unlucky 13 to a ball that was "dipping" on him. Next up was Shano, walking out with confidence, playing a full blooded drive with confidence and walking back a minute later as the ball sailed off the outside edge in slow motion and fly slip gobbled it up. Cue panic in the ranks, fear gripped the BICC dug out, pads and gloves everywhere. Kunal went out and smashed a quick 3, golden arm Ed played all round a straight one and was out for a duck three balls later. You can imagine the mayhem and panic had set in now, surely skipper Mishansh could calm things down? Well, no. Two balls later he's on his back for a duck trio with Ed and Shane. Next Simon steadied the ship, playing a solid forward defense like it was a timeless test match. A couple of runs later Simon was the second LBW victim of the day. Umer was finally caught on 33 runs, the long wait for the century continues. The next three batsmen managed one run each, Bill, Will and Caspar. Caspar barely had time to enjoy his empanada before he was padding up!  Last man in Wills, looking to improve the average, smashed a couple of runs and finished not out. Badgers skipper Sam Allwood finished up with 4/14 from 4 over, nice work sir. 

BICC 81/10

Monday scorecard
After a weekend of torrential rain the sky finally gave hope on Monday lunchtime that some cricket could finally be played. Plans of a forty overs game were abandoned with a late start twelve overs per innings was agreed.

BICC won the toss and opted to bat first, Shane and Issac (on loan from Badgers) opened the innings. Shano, a nervous wreck from the golden duck, was relieved to push an early single safely to leg side and avoid the dreaded pair. Issac meanwhile was enjoying a few big shots until he cut a lovely shot straight into the hands of gully for 10. Out strode Anton to the middle, always a joy to watch but unfortunately a nice shot off his pads flew straight into the hands of Badgers skipper Sam at deep mid wicket for 2. Next in Aussie James, the Brisbane express to join the fray, pulling and cutting like he had never been away. With a damp outfield and long boundaries both James and Shano had to run a lot of singles and two's that would have been fours another day. Martin of Badgers bowled a consistent and nagging length outside off stump and deserved a wicket. After ten overs golden arm Ed was spotted padded up and raring to go like a greyhound in a trap on the edge of the BICC dugout. Shane retired for 18 and in came Ed for final two overs finishing on 6 not out and James 16 not out.

BICC 2/74

On loan Issac opened the bowling for BICC, a tight line and length that kept the opening Badgers at bay. Next up and steaming in from the football ground end was the Brisbane express, always in the wickets James found the inside edge and the middle stump was knocked back. As the runs dried up for the Badgers they were pinching singles with one single being pushed to old golden arm himself, who casually threw at the stumps with only one to aim for, the batter well short of his ground. As if another run out wasn't enough Ed came onto bowl, picking up a wicket in his two overs. Behind the stumps Supun had been keeping things tidy as possible, off came the pads and gloves for a tidy over, tying up the badgers with some well flighted deliveries. Ravi took over the keeping duties and talking of well flighted deliveries, our Dave came on to give the ball such good flight that Qantas would have been proud. Bowling three tight overs Dave made sure the Badgers fell short of the target.

Battersea Badgers 3/72

Shane Lightley

Scorecard

Our usual summer break was interrupted by a Monday evening match against a strong L’Hospitalet, fielding three Spanish internationals. A toss was negotiated and they batted first. 

Things were kept relatively tight early on, although familiar foe Omar started to get going (as he far too often does against us). A nice cooling breeze was blowing across the ground, which I’m sure a few of us were using as an excuse when catches went down. They were very strong in the middle overs, with most of the runs coming from the top four batters, but things slowed down when they were dismissed. They finished on 195, with the last wicket falling to a run out off the last ball. Vishesh Gajjar finished with four wickets, Vrishab Kindal got two, and there was one each for Maxi Hoeck, Sam Phillipps and Ujjwal Anand as eight bowlers were used. 

We had a shaky start as Vrishab saw three partners come and go to leave us 11/3 as we struggled against the international bowling attack. Damien McMullen did at least keep Vrishab company for a mega 29-run partnership before he offered up a simple caught and bowled. 40/4 didn’t take long to become 48 all out, as a long tail crumbled completely. 

LHCC were a competitive but friendly bunch and I’m sure we’ll see them on the field again soon! Thanks to them again for organising the game and for some fantastic photos. 

​Sam Phillipps

We were set for a busy weekend with our debut in the 2024 Northeastern League, with four matches spread equally over the Saturday and Sunday. 

Pak Barcelona
We started with a game against Pak Barcelona at 9am. Shriram Bhosale lost the toss and we were put in the field. Only Shriram himself in his one over could really stem the flow of runs, with the best figures going to Vrishab Kandral (2/34), with the other wicket taken by Burhan Ejaz (1/41). Pak Barcelona finished with 219/3 after an unbeaten 135-run fourth wicket partnership. 
Starting our innings with something of an uphill task, we made a reasonable start and were in with a shout before a typical BICC collapse took us from 86/2 to 119/8, including the retirement of top-scorer Umer Razi (32). The ninth wicket put on another 13 to take us to a chastening 75-run loss. 

Catalunya Coalesce
After an extended lunch break, we were back for our second game of the day at 5pm. This time we won the toss but again we fielded first. Things weren’t going too badly when we got them 87/3 (albeit with a good runrate), but just like the morning the fourth-wicket partnership took the game away, this time combining for 158 runs before it finally ended off the last ball of the innings as Vishesh Gajjar claimed his third wicket (3/48), having already dismissed both openers. Tom Coulthard got the other wicket (1/39) to end with the only figures going at under 10 an over. They finished on a hefty 245/4.
Starting our innings with something of an uphill task (I feel like I’ve written that before!), we started well with a 57-run partnership between Maroof Shaikh and Vrishab. There was another 50+ run partnership between Vrishab and Tom before the collapse came, and we went from 114/2 to 115/5 in the blink of an eye. “Scoreboard pressure” and all that, but we’d got ourselves into a reasonable position. A quick 50 for Suraj Jha wasn’t enough to save the innings, but we finished on a very respectable 215/6.

Men in Blue
Sunday morning’s game saw us play Men in Blue, with us desperate to avenge the recent trend of defeats against them. They won the toss and put us into bat. 
Again, there was a decent enough start thanks again to Maroof, this time accompanied by Ujjwal Anand. They got some runs on the board but, Ujjwal especially, were both struggling to get the ball away. I wish I was getting paid every time I write the word “collapse”, because there are two more to come. 51/1 became 70/5. A cameo from the captain (17) saw something of a partnership form before he was caught. 92/5 became 112 all out off the penultimate ball. The lowest score of the four games so far, and not one likely to be defended. 
And so it was. We took two of them with us, with a wicket apiece for Shriram and Vishesh, but they chased it down in just the twelfth over. Still, it meant a bit of a breather before our next game…

Magic Badalona
Our fourth and final game was against Magic. The shortened first game had allowed a break and time for a dance in the dressing room (it’s how all top teams relax after three defeats in a row). We lost the toss and were put in the field. 
The top order got them off to a good start but the game changed on the wicket of their number 3 Shakeel, caught by Shriram off the bowling of Maxi Hoeck. With the middle and lower order less able to hit out, the runrate fell and wickets fell consistently. They were eventually all out off the last ball for 195. Burhan finished with the best figures of 3/45, Vishesh 2/39 and Wills Camfield 2/22, with a wicket each for Maxi and Anton. 
We envisioned the unsuccessful chase against Coalesce from the evening before, when we had scored more than this batting second. Maroof opened again, this time with Anton. Disaster struck first ball though, as Anton was run out backing up. Vrishab came in at 3 and scored a valuable (and quick) 19 in a 58-run partnership. When he was caught it brought Maxi to the crease alongside Maroof, and the two of them batted brilliantly bringing the runs required down along with the runrate. 90 runs later and Maroof was finally dismissed for 67 but the fear of another collapse was also dismissed by Suraj (confusingly listed as Caspar on the live scorecard!). Suraj (30*) and Maxi (56*) saw us home with four balls to spare and we finally had our first win of this long and hot weekend! A great win, and we hope for more in our next league game on the 19th August against Catalunya Jaguars. 

​Sam Phillipps

Barcelona’s loss is certainly Andorra’s gain. Long-serving member Anish Shindore, now based in Andorra, has recently started proceedings to start his own club in the principality. Cricket Club Andorra has been officially born, and a home in Encamp sourced. We were set to play a triangular tournament with our French friends Nimes (who we visited last year, but were unable to play due to the weather), but sadly Anish wasn’t quite able to raise an Andorran team yet - that will certainly come in the near future. 

First game scorecard
We arranged to play three games over the weekend, although the plans were always quite loose. After reintroducing ourselves, sharing a breakfast put on by our host and even talking with the local press, we started a 30-over game, knowing that there was potentially disruptive weather coming in the afternoon to follow the storm of Friday night. Stand-in captain Maroof Shaikh won the toss and chose to bat with Khyzer Nawaz and Anton Kritzinger opening. Anton decided to become the first man to be run out on Andorran TV (see video below) and Khyzer (23) edged behind moments after being hit on the toe and facing the possibility of never being able to walk ever again. Maroof made a smart 19 before playing a very loose shot, but none of the middle order got going and we went from 54/1 to 70/5 very quickly. Maxi Hoeck (37) was at least playing some big shots and was ably supported by Zeeshan Dildar (23). Their 50-run partnership got us up to 150/8 before both were dismissed with us on that score just 23.1 overs into the innings. 
Nimes coach Rolf had promised some big hitting before the game, and he wasn’t lying… After a lengthy lunch/ rain delay, we finally got underway with more rain definitely on the way. Jones Paulson and Maxi started us off with the openers clearly keen to get the game won quickly - helped by our overpitched bowling. After an expensive first over, Jones dismissed their opener with the best slip catch that Andorra had ever seen (must be a good cricketer who took that). Sadly for us, the second wicket partnership, despite a few short rain delays, put on a rapid 88 runs together, with the ball consistently sailing over the long-on to cow corner boundary. Their captain Sharoz was finally dismissed for 62 by Umer Razi, who in turn became BICC’s “all-time” leading wicket taker. Spin-twin Anton followed suit, claiming two wickets in his two overs for just four runs as they collapsed from 105/1 to 107/4. Despite that amazing slip fielder getting a wicket of his own, it was too little too late and Nimes sauntered to victory five wickets down in the 17th over as the rain really started to hammer down. First spoils to the French, as we all ran for cover. 

Second game scorecard
After a bit of a wait, we decided to try and fill the remaining time of the afternoon with a T10 match. This time Nimes won the toss and chose to bat. Umer picked up his second wicket of the day but the innings would only last four overs til we were off for rain again, and this time for good. We agreed to finish the match in the morning, when the forecast was much better. 
Sunday morning arrived, along with the promised sunshine. With latecomers forcing a couple of changes to our lineup, we hit the field for the remaining six overs. Having taken just one wicket the day before, fresh legs and a change of conditions saw us rattle through a slightly mixed up batting order. Anton finished with 2/9 and Vishesh with 2/11, with cheap wickets for Maxi and Jones too. Nimes finished on 80 all out, losing the last wicket to a run out on the last ball.
Home hero Anish opened with Anton and got us a solid base. Burhan made an impressive cameo (16 off 6) and Maxi (26* off 14) saw us home for a five wicket victory with an over to spare. 

Third game scorecard
After the completion of the two-day T10, we started our scheduled Sunday games. The first game was a T20 where we again won the toss and chose to bat. With a bit of a reverse batting order, our top order struggled a bit and we were quickly 30/3. Umer and Zeeshan (24) put on a better partnership for the 4th wicket before we lost two wickets in two balls. Maxi (33*), in at 8, had another good cameo with the bat and got us up to 123 before the batters at the other end let him down. 
Nimes made rather easy work of the chase, taking just 11.3 overs to win the game. They did this just two wickets down, both taken by Sam when the game was gone. Nimes captain Sharoz finished on 85* and clearly felt frustrated at missing out on a ton…

Fourth game scorecard
Our final game of the weekend was scheduled to be another T20, but was cut short to 15-overs aside due to time constraints. We allowed Nimes to bat first in this game, as they requested. They got off to a flier, that never really slowed down despite the occasional wicket (particularly from Wills with 3/26). After 12 overs, Rolf, the Nimes coach, pulled his team off ending the innings early due to those same time constraints. It’s far to say that captain Sharoz (83*) was less than pleased!
It was agreed that we’d bat 10 overs with an unlikely target of 155 set. Despite some lusty blows from Zeeshan (28 off 16) opening up, none of the rest of the top order really got going until Maroof (21 off 9) and Burhan (19* off 10) came in after the game was gone. Nimes won by 56 runs as finished on 98/7.

Despite an overall imbalance in the two teams, it was a great weekend played in good spirits. As they had shown in France last year, they are a friendly bunch and the brief conversations after the game already turned to our next game together. We’re looking forward to it! 

Thanks to Anish and his fledgling Cricket Club Andorra for hosting, we hope to play against an Andorran side next time!

Sam Phillipps

Scorecard (or as close to it as possible!)

After a lengthy spell without an organised game, we finally managed to get a midweek afternoon friendly against Badalona CC. They suffered some last minute drop outs and ended up only with 8 players but it was agreed that two of their players could bat twice in order to balance things out, after we ended up on 10 after a late drop out of our own. Badalona won the toss and chose to bat (probably wise, with a couple of their players also running late!)

Jones Paulson and Maxi Hoeck got us underway and started well. We were showing a bit of err...match rustiness in the field and with conceding extras but Quinn van Oordt (on debut) showed us how to confidently take a high catch. Wickets fell consistently throughout the innings and we got more into it. Jones and Suraj Jha picked up deserved 3fers, and there were 2 wickets apiece for Vishesh Gajjar and Wills Camfield. Quinn's bowling was too good for the batters to even get an edge on it and he harshly ended his debut innings wicketless. Badalona were bowled out for 180/9.

As well as two Badalona batters batting twice, we had agreed to give them a couple of sub fielders to get them to 10 players. Dev Kumar and Shane Lightley opened the batting for us but both fell with the score on 10. Suraj joined Quinn in the middle after the second wicket and the pair put on a rapid 78-run partnership, mostly thanks to some big hitting from Suraj (he was 19 off 4 balls). BICC captain Shriram Bhosale, on as one of the aforementioned sub fielders, volunteered himself for a bowl and was granted it by the Badalona captain to a chorus of boos from the onwatching BICC players. He thought he had Suraj caught behind two balls into his spell and eventually had him dismissed that way a couple of balls later with him four runs short of a debut BICC 50. Quinn was also dismissed with the score on 88 and we suddenly went from well in control to having a bit of a wobble. The middle order of Maxi, Vishesh and Wills smartly played the ball into the gaps, picking up easy singles but when the three of them were out, we were definitely behind. Shriram, now deciding that he wants to play for us again, hit a quick cameo but left a tall task of 40 runs from 5 overs to the final pair of Jones and Sam Phillipps. The crowd starting filing out in order to beat the traffic, the drinks kiosks closed up and the rest of the BICC team started packing up their belongings with the game dead and buried... What fools they were! The pair gave themselves a chance with 12 required off the last over, but could only manage eight runs and the win went to Badalona.

It was all a good warm up for our first tour to Andorra this weekend, where we will meet our French friends from Nimes CC at the new home of Cricket Club Andorra. Thanks to Omar and Badalona for a great game played in great spirits (and great weather!).
​
Sam Phillipps

Scorecard
Great Glen CC 165/5 
BICC 170/1 

A warm and sunny lunchtime greeted the players arriving at Montjuic to host our first touring team of the year, Great Glen from the Leicestershire league. 

With a 1pm start the match had time for 25 overs per innings and after winning the toss Great Glen batted first. Unfortunately our visitors had some last minute problems and could only bring six of their own players. With our own availability over subscribed with players “working from home/students/early retirement” we loaned our former captain Umer  “batting for his average” Razi, new boy Uwijal and Anton Kritzinger to bolster Great Glens batting line up.

Opening the bowling from the city end with some serious swing was Jones, he soon had the Great Glen openers Umi and Pina poking and prodding while our keeper Ash was diving beautifully behind the stumps to deliveries that strayed down the leg side. Jones bowled consistently well without taking a wicket with 27 coming off his 4 overs. Meanwhile our skipper Shri was steaming in like the Calcutta express and deserved a wicket or two but finished with 20 off his 2 overs. 

Entering the fray up next was our very own answer to to the Luftwaffe, Max, dropping his short pitched chin music like it was going out of fashion. Max finished with no wickets but only 16 off his 3 overs. Somehow the Great Glen openers were still hanging around, keeping the scoreboard just about ticking over.

Next into the bowling attack was Karthik, soon the breakthrough came and the opener Pina was caught by Shiri out in the deep for 19. First drop for Great Glen was Uwijal, keen to make up for his duck last time out, was quickly calling a suicide single which momentarily had both batters running towards the same end, somehow they both avoided being run out. After more trick shots then a Reeperbann hooker Uwujal fell for 10, LBW, playing all round a full toss that really should have been dispatched to the next postcode. Bowling the pie was none other than crocodile Eldridge, who was glad to “snap” up another wicket on his journey back to first team status. 

Fresh from his stint at NASA, Wills was launched into the bowling attack with some rockets. Wills took a stunning catch low to his left of his own bowling, and after two more catches from Maroof, finished with the bang tidy figures of 3/22 off 4 overs. During the chaos Umi was retired for 44* and at the fall of one wicket Anton come out to finish on 12* while Karin from Great Glen was one of Wills victims accumulating a well played 34. Mishmash bowled well to no avail but was economical with only 20 off 4 overs. 

Striding out to open the batting for BICC like a couple of gladiators was Ash and Maroof, slaying the bowling to all four corners. Ash succumbed to one big shot too many and holed out, caught at deep mid off for 28. Next man in Shane dispatched his first delivery off the pads for a boundary to put any fear of a BICC duck trophy away for another day. Maroof and Shane settled down pinching singles and playing confidently, until Great Glen introduced the spin twins, Umi and Anton in to the attack. For a few overs in the middle of the innings there were more dots than book of Morse code but Shane and Maroof knuckled down and released the pressure. Eventually Maroof retired on 44* and in came Mishmash to steer the good ship home, retiring on 20* with Skipper Shri sensing victory coming out to smash a six off his only delivery and win the game leaving Shane stranded on 41*.

Shane Lightley

Having been offered the pitch during the week, we hastily organised a friendly against Men in Blue on Easter Sunday. With them a bit short, and us oversubscribed, Wills and Aman filled in for MIB while our newest member Karthik Sai made his BICC debut. The toss was somewhat negotiated, and we bowled first. Having previously agreed a 25-over game, we shortened it to a T20 from the off with lots of wet weather hanging around…

MIB were never fully able to get going and Maxi Hoeck and Karthik kept things tight early on. Maxi picked up the first wicket with the last ball of the of the first over, and there was a steady stream of wickets throughout the innings. Never was this more true than when Simon Eldridge was bowling his right-arm darts, although he needed a break and a sit down after the first two overs of his spell (definitely not anything to do with the fact that his second over was his least successful). He had picked up two wickets in his first over, the first a top edge that went about 3km up and might have hit the stumps on the way down, but for captain Shriram Bhosale to catch it with the gloves on. James Bentley at the “other end” got in on the act too, getting the dangerous Omar Ali caught by Maroof Shaikh (the first of his three catches). Zeeshan beat the next batter for pace, Vishesh beat the one after with guile before Simon came back and combined twice with Maroof for his third and fourth wickets. He finished with impressive figures of 4/24. Shriram bizarrely gave the last over to Maroof who had our own Aman LBW with his first ball and was unlucky not to get a second wicket next ball. MIB finished on 149/9, with their top 9 all getting out perfectly in order.

We had got lucky in the first innings, as the clouds were light and the rain stayed away. During the innings break, they got a bit darker and as the player were walking out it started spitting. Ujjwal managed to get himself out for a duck before our first rain delay after two overs. With showers coming and going, and varying levels of rain, we went back on and came off twice more before deciding to play on for a few more overs through it. Eventually, a heavier downpour after eight overs came and forced us off for good. We finished on 50/1 (short of the 52/1 DLS par score, for those counting), with Maroof (25*) and Shane Lightley (16*) left unbeaten. 

It was our first rain-affected game since our tour to the south of France last May, and our first in Catalonia since March 13th 2022! Given the forecast, we were probably lucky to get as many as 28 overs in, although it’s a shame as the game was very evenly poised and we haven’t managed to beat MIB in a while!

​Sam Phillipps

My first ever trip to Granada was set to be a memorable one, having been nearly two years in the pipeline. I flew out on Friday morning and decided to take the bus to nearbyhotspot Nerja rather than explore Granada itself. It was a very pleasant town with the sun shining. There were some really nice flowerpots and a cool roundabout before I found some rocks to stand on. A walk back down the hill took me to the seaside where I found a cool-looking scooter and a flower. The clouds started to roll in but it wouldn't take away the beauty of the main square or some shells that I found. I had some snacks before going to bed in an otherwise uneventful and non-commentworthy day.
After a lazy Saturday morning and a long lunch, I headed back to Granada to meet up with some friends at a bar, who were brimming with joy after winning something called a "cricket match". 
Having been very intrigued as to this strange sounding sport, I headed along to the ground with them to watch. They couldn't manage to get a win in the first game sadly. To top it off, in that game lots of the players got injured and I was asked to play! I was told to run as fast as I could but to make sure I stayed behind the white line, or the umpire would get mad and tell me I had no balls. We lost the second game too, but I had a great time and thought about the possibility of playing some more. I asked the captain if I could join them for the whole tour next time, and he said maybe. I hope he chooses me!