Hampton Wick Royal Cricket Club
The Week
at The Wick
Your weekly guide to life at the club
2 July 2026
Hampton Wick Royal Cricket Club
Your weekly guide to life at the club
2 July 2026
“The 5s saved us from the ignominy of a reverse Wickwash with a crushing 110 run win. Stand out performers Raj and Zaid deserve the plaudits.”
Sam Kemp · ChairmanOn a blisteringly hot weekend to forget for our men’s league teams, the 5s saved us from the ignominy of a reverse Wickwash with a crushing 110 run win. At 11–3 things didn’t look too clever, but a quick-fire 40 off 23 balls for Raj Shanmuganathan and 41* from Zaid Khan ensured a competitive total of 168 was posted. The wickets were shared, but credit to the unlikely bowling duo of Tom McMahon and Ben “i-Robot” Houghton with figures of 3-15 and 3-8 respectively for bringing home a much-needed W.
The 1s, 2s and 3s all looked to have done a reasonable job with the ball, restricting the oppo to totals that looked eminently gettable; however, it wasn’t to be with none of our batters across all three teams scoring more than the 33 runs from both Sashi Asokan and Olly Spray. The 4s went binary early in their innings, with the first four wickets falling for 1, 1, 0, 0 to find themselves 2 for 3 and then 11 for 4. Despite some patching up lower down the order, 111 was always 20 to 30 runs short against a strong Reigate Priory team who, despite some excellent fielding and catching (and questionable umpiring!), won by 4 wickets.
I was delighted that we hosted a T20 Women’s World Cup evening on Saturday when a good crowd of Junior players and parents had a great time with the added bonus of England’s women cruising to a very impressive win against New Zealand. They could certainly teach the England men a thing or two about disciplined batting and finding a way to win…. Off the field you will see that the pavilion rebuild is now in full swing. Please remember that access to the building site and to the lane is now completely off-limits for any cars. Please continue to remind players, officials and opposition teams to allow more time to get to the Wick. Weather looks fine again for the foreseeable. Let’s put in some hard training this week and get back to winning ways as soon as possible!
Sam Kemp
HWRCC Chairman
| # | Player | XI | Points |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Jack Wylie | 1st XI | 103 |
| 2 | Zaid Khan | 5th XI | 87 |
| 3 | Zak Collier | 2nd XI | 80 |
| 4 | Tom McMahon | 5th XI | 69 |
| 5 | Graeme Tong | 2nd XI | 61 |
| 6 | Seb Carty | 1st XI | 63 |
| 7 | Ed Charlton | 2nd XI | 45 |
| 8 | Sashi Asokan | 1st XI | 43 |
| 9 | Olly Spray | 1st XI | 43 |
| 10 | Jaden Mistry | 4th XI | 39 |
| 11 | Jonah Blake | 5th XI | 30 |
The 5s assembled at Beverley Meads on the final extreme heat day of the current heatwave. The team was older than any 5s team to represent the Wick this season, with no juniors in the side and a lot of experience: 50-somethings Phil Miles (60?), Ben Houghton and Nick Dunmore; 40-something Raj Shanmuganathan; 30-somethings Nirmal Kumar Kannan and Tom McMahon; and 20-somethings skipper Jack Le Feuvre, Tom Dunmore, Zaid Khan, Jonah Blake and Ali Sufi.
At the toss, skipper JLF had one job. He called correctly and the 5s were batting in the knowledge that on a hot day the opposition bowlers and fielders were likely to suffer as the innings progressed. A solid start would very likely make way for a decent total — or at least that was the plan.
When Ben (0), Phil (1) and Nirmal (1) perished in quick succession the 5s were 11–3 and struggling. Nick and JLF rebuilt the innings for 10 overs, accumulating extras and 4s before Nick (16) fell to a tremendously athletic caught and bowled. At 29–4 the team was still in the mire, but the change bowlers were not as accurate. Raj immediately punished any loose bowling with his customary confidence and power, and the scoring rate accelerated. After a stand of 32, JLF (11) was bowled trying to score, bringing Tom Dunmore to the crease. Tom supported Raj as the senior partner accelerated his scoring further. Raj was out for 40 from 28 balls — his efforts had taken a lot of confidence out of the West Wimbledon players and set the 5s up for a decent total.
With the score 88–6 and 17 overs left, Zaid joined Tom in what was to be the crucial part of the match. The two left-handed batters knocked the ball into gaps, ran hard and put the hosts under pressure. The West Wimbledon skipper found his voice drowned out by 3 or 4 other ‘captains’ on the field. The bowling became less accurate and fielding mistakes increased. Tom (19) was dismissed after an excellent stand of 40. Jonah (0) and Tom McMahon (9*) provided support to Zaid during the final overs. Zaid (41*) produced his best innings for the Wick and calmly took the side to a total of 168–8 in the allotted 40 overs.
Ali and Zaid opened the bowling and aimed at the stumps. Ali (2-9) showed his pace whilst Zaid (1-10) demonstrated control. JLF then introduced slower paced bowling — Tom McMahon hit his length immediately and was rewarded with an early wicket, a well-taken catch in the deep by Zaid. At the other end, Ben held a perfect line just outside off stump which the batters found hard to play. Ben (3-8) returned his best figures for the club and Tom (3-15) finished the innings with two well-taken stumpings by Jonah.
The 5s had achieved a big win by 110 runs. The team deserved the result, with everyone contributing. Stand-out performers Raj and Zaid deserve the plaudits. Next week the 5s return to Rose Cottage to welcome Wandgas CC.
Director of Junior Cricket
As I write this, the England women’s team are making a great comeback in their World Cup semi-final against South Africa. I can only presume they are taking their inspiration from our U10 girls, who continued their stand-out season this week, maintaining their 100% record with a comprehensive win over Chiswick. They truly are a force this year. The stand-out performance of the week, however, came from the mixed U13s, who dismissed Weybridge for just 18. Lachlan Low returned extraordinary match figures of 5-8, including a hat-trick — a brilliant individual performance within a superb team effort from a side who are going very strongly in both league and cup competitions.
However, Lachlan was not the only junior to record a hat-trick this week. Special mention goes to Parina Singh, who achieved the feat while playing for Middlesex South, remarkably with all three wickets coming LBW. One for the statisticians! Sunday also saw wins for the mixed U12s, U14s and U15s, while the U21 team — made up almost entirely of junior alumni and current juniors — had an excellent win in their First Division match against Dulwich. The pathway from junior cricket into adult cricket remains very strong.
Off the pitch, a huge thank you to everyone who helped organise such an excellent social event on Saturday night. Evenings like that are exactly what this club is all about: junior players having fun in a safe environment — apart from the odd Wellington boot flying askew during the welly wanging — learning what it means to be part of a club, seeing how their parents contribute to making the evening a success, and feeling that they truly belong at their club, the Wick. We also raised more than £1,100 towards the pavilion rebuild, thanks to an incredible raffle and the various games on the evening. Remarkably, we are already heading into the latter stages of the season. With another heatwave on the way, we are looking forward to an uninterrupted schedule, with plenty of our teams still in contention for honours. Thank you, as ever, to all the parents and supporters, without whom none of this could happen! Enjoy the good weather this week and go well.
| Date | Fixture | Result |
|---|---|---|
| Sat 27 Jun | U9 Girls v Wimbledon (H) | Wimbledon conceded |
| Sat 27 Jun | U12 v Weybridge (H) | Won by 7 wickets |
| Sat 27 Jun | U15 v Hampton Hill (H) | Won by 7 wickets |
| Sun 28 Jun | U9 v Hounslow & Whitton (A) | Won by 49 runs |
| Sun 28 Jun | U13 v Weybridge (H) | Won by 10 wickets |
| Sun 28 Jun | U10 v East Molesey (A) | Lost by 72 runs |
| Sun 28 Jun | U14 v Valley End (A) | Won by 53 runs |
| Tue 30 Jun | U11 v East Molesey (A) | Lost by 50 runs |
| Tue 30 Jun | U13 v Stoke d’Abernon (H) | Stoke d’Abernon conceded |
| Tue 30 Jun | U14 v Ashtead (A) | HWRCC conceded |
| Wed 1 Jul | U13 v Hounslow & Whitton (H) | Won by 9 wickets |
| Wed 1 Jul | U15 v Fulham (A) | Fulham conceded |
| Wed 1 Jul | U17 v Hampton Hill (H) | Lost by 9 runs |
| Wed 1 Jul | U10 Girls v Chiswick (A) | Won by 93 runs |
| Wed 1 Jul | U14 Girls v Weybridge (A) | Lost by 20 runs |
