Exiles lost a classic match to Southern Railway and Kenley by just one run to start the 2025 season.

In a break to recent norm, Exiles captain Shahid won the toss and chose to bowl. And despite impressive pace from debutant Nadeem resulting in a sharp early catch from the returning Zia at slip, Kenley ground their way to a fine position of 80 for 1 before a four wicket intervention from Sri bowling up the hill saw the Exiles get back into the match, with the Exiles then taking regular wickets and ultimately bowling Kenley out for 151 – with 2 wickets for Nadeem, KK and Zia.

Exiles reply didn’t start well with three early ducks as the side slipped to 67 for 7, with ‘fast spinner’ Elan returning a superb 5 for 19 for Kenley. Debutant Ghulam Safi worked hard for 37 to keep the Exiles scoreboard moving. But it was the belligerent Nadeem who stole the show supported by the for once resilient Exiles lower order as Ling, Crossland and Naren, despite only scoring 5 runs themselves between them, assisted in partnerships of 23, 36 and 24 as every smashed boundary from Nadeem wiped the smiles off the faces of the Kenley fielders as the Exiles suddenly got close. Very close.

It was the obduracy of John Crossland that really illustrated the frustration of the Kenley bowlers, his innings only ended when Kenley decided to bounce out the 68 year old wicket keeper. When Nadeem ultimately edged behind, Exiles were only one short and Kenley were very very relieved.

An excellent start to the 2025 season with two very impressive debuts for the Exiles.

Exiles finished the 2024 season with 7 wins and 10 defeats plus 2 abandonments and a tie!

Trophy winners are confirmed as follows:

Bhau Patel Batting Trophy: Khusro Khan 423 runs at 30.21; (KK wins it for the first time!)

Bowling Trophy: Muhammed Siyar 20 wickets at 13.00; (Siyar wins it for the first time!)

Fielding Trophy: Shahid Iqbal – 14 catches and one run-out; (The Skipper wins the trophy for the 4th year in a row, breaking the club record for a season in the process!)

Man-of-the-Match Trophy: Khusro Khan – 4 matches; (KK wins the award for the first time as reward for an excellent all round season with bat and ball)

Captains Prize: TBD at the AGM

The AGM will be at Mr Waffle in Nine Elms on Wednesday 13th November 2024 at 7pm;

Nets to be advised in due course – but likely to be at Lords from Feb to April 2025.

Exiles endured an extremely disappointing finish to the season with a 9 wicket defeat to Southern Railway & Kenley in record time at Haydon’s Road Rec on Sunday.

Batting first Exiles were in trouble from the off, with only skipper Shahid (23) and Siyar (13) of the top seven making double figures. With 4 ducks in the line up, Exiles were 44 for 9 before the biggest partnership of the innings – 24 for the last wicket between Shiraz (17no) and John Crossland at least tried to give the Exiles something to bowl at – before John was seemingly inevitably run out. 68 all out in barely over 20 overs.

Which was never going to be enough. But SR&K made sure the total was reached in record time – taking just 6.2 overs to get over the line, with Siyar taking the only wicket – to reach 20 for the season.

So an ignominious defeat to finish a generally successful season.

9 man Exiles were beaten narrowly by new opposition The Blues on a showery Haydon’s Road Rec on Sunday.

Unusally Exiles won the toss and elected to bowl and restricted The Blues to 165 all out – one over shorter than the allocated 30 – with 4 wickets for KK.

Exiles were soon in trouble at 48 for 4 in reply and despite a restorative 53 out out from KK, with support from Siyar and Ishaq, it was just too little too late to rescue the win as Exiles finished 10 runs short.

Final game of the season next week is against Southern Railway and Kenley at Haydon’s Road.