Exiles were beaten by 5 wickets by Streatham and Marlborough on Sunday.

Batting first, despite 41 from Shahid, Exiles were in trouble at 90 for 6 before a restorative partnership of 72 between debutant Alex and Siyar with a belligerent 62 took the side to a competitive 190 all out.

In reply, a partnership of 93 for the third wicket took the home side to 150 for 2 – with the number 3 hitting 84 – before some late wickets gave Exiles some hope, with Siyar continuing his good all-round performance with 3 for 29.

Alas it was too little too late as Streatham got home 5 down, with 11 balls to spare.

A rematch awaits next week at Dundonald Rec.

Exiles inaugural fixture against Bank of England was washed out by heavy rain after seven overs with the only notable event having taken place was Naren bowling one of the BofE openers for his 389th Exiles wicket.

Here’s hoping for some drier weather for the upcoming double header against Streatham and Marlborough CC.

Exiles were beaten in a hard-fought classic encounter at Morden Rec off the final ball by Ploughmans in the most controversial and dramatic of circumstances.

Batting first was tricky and after 2 early wickets were lost, KK with 32 and debutant James Prebble with a top scoring 41 rebuilt the Exiles innings, with late impetus provided by a hard hit 23 by Saeed. 161 seemed a decent total to defend.

The Exiles bowlers found an excellent nagging accuracy to keep the Ploughmans batters in check in the second innings. One of the Ploughmans openers made 64, the number 4 26 and number 5 31, but all lost their wickets as the Exiles applied the squeeze as the run rate got tight.

It came down to the final ball, with Ploughmans needing 3 to win, 2 to tie, 8 down. Masie attempted a slower ball outside off stump which the batsman missed, but they scampered through for a tight single with Masie at the bowlers end missing the stumps with a run out chance which then gave the Ploughmans batters a chance to try for a second run to rescue a tie – but they were denied by an excellent direct hit run out by Shahid.

It seemed Exiles had won by one run only to be denied by a late (and correct) call for a wide by the umpire, so far had the ball been outside off stump. So now the scores were level with one ball left and Ploughmans nine down. This time the ball was smashed over midwicket to give Ploughmans the win, as ultimately seven were scored off the last ball. A tough one for the Exiles to take, the late call from the umpire making it controversially close to being too late, but ultimately a fair call.

Onwards to next week and a fixture still tbc.

Exiles beat Merton by 43 runs on Sunday.

Batting first, boundaries and runs in general were had to come by, with only 10 boundaries in the innings but the Exiles ground out 150 for 8 from the full 40 overs, thanks to a partnership of 68 for the 7th wicket between Hasan (40) and debutant Chris (25).

Exiles turned the screw early in the Merton innings with Naren’s 5 overs only going for 3 runs and the other debutant Alastair taking 3 for 11. Wickets were thereafter shared with 3 important ones for Shahid to ensure Merton didn’t get back into the game.

Next up are Ploughmans at Morden Rec.