1st beat Byfleet by 4 wickets
OPCC 1st XI travelled away to Byfleet, situated essentially on the M25, on Saturday, in need of a win to turn around a challenging preceding 6 weeks. The game started at 11am to accommodate England’s match against Switzerland, which meant the majority of us arrived around 10.45 and we did not warm up.

CB, as is tradition this season, lost the toss and yet again we were asked to field first. Byfleet started positively, with their overseas and a man in a top knot. It turned out the latter could only play on the offside, so CB came round the wicket and bowled him. Byfleet continued to chance their arm, whilst we dropped a few catches, until Hyder came into the attack and immediately found excellent control. The debutant would go on to bowl 12 tidy overs, claiming 2-28 – a fantastic performance. CB hit a bit of a purple patch and Byfleet were reduced to 96-6, before a useful lower order hand from their 8 (and more dropped catches) pushed things on before we eventually took the final wicket with the score on 148. CB claimed his 5th wicket, Uppers and Hyder 2 each and 1 for Scott; and a special mention to Jacob who kept superbly throughout.

Chasing has not gone well this season. However, after Saumit was trapped in front early, Narayan and BT set about putting our minds at rest. The pair played some outrageous shots, with Narayan favouring the leg side and BT favouring everywhere, including a ludicrous maximum over the pavilion at cover, and a straight batted 6 over mid wicket. After Narayan fell for a fantastic 46, we stuttered our way slightly towards the finishing line, but a run-a-ball 66 from Ben, and a very useful 20 from Hyder took us over the line 6 down.

A fantastic victory, and an excellent team performance. Well done all!