Kings Langley School, Sunday 5 May 2024.

Edgware 117-3 (26.5 overs: Jeet Swaminarayan 52 ret, Josh Brown 47, Amiya Ranjan Rout 2-22) beat St Anne’s Allstars 115 all out (29.4 overs: Amiya Ranjan Rout 28, Barathwaj Nagarajan 23) by 7 wickets.

Allstars Debuts: Kamaal Poudyal, Pradosh Bose, Thomas Loussouam.

Report by Garreth Duncan – Photos by Garreth Duncan and Gren Thompson

Kings Langley School, in leafy Hertfordshire, is a beacon of education to which we were hugely grateful for enabling us to play our opening fixture of 2024, after a testing week in which two grounds cancelled on us at short notice. In the school’s canteen, they proudly display the values they uphold and instil in their students. Effort. Empathy. Stickability. And, as a new Allstars term began, we displayed plenty of those qualities gainst strong opponents who play regular league cricket, but ultimately it was us who received an education from Edgware as we went down fighting.

We arrived with 10 players, a calf injury – a familiar theme against Edgware – having ruled out Amit Deverathippa that morning. Raghavendra, captaining us for the first time, lost the toss, and we were asked to bat first. We expected, and received, a searching examination as Edgware’s opening bowlers Dean Veerapen and Raj Parmar started with some old fashioned discipline in their opening spells. Paul Burgin, playing on his home patch, showed some great stickability as they were seen off – and Amiya Ranjan Rout, in a new pinch-hitter’s role, then upped the tempo as he mixed deft late cuts with some mighty blows down the ground. Edgware were forced onto the defensive as Amiya twice cleared the boundary and the hedge behind it – but eventually he went for just one big hit too many and was caught at long-on. Pablo followed soon after as he carved Tush Sonecha to point, but 40 for 2 off the first 12 overs was much better than we’d have expected against an attack who’d reduced us to 15 for 4 last time out.

Barathwaj Nagarajan and Matt Biss continued the Allstars efforts as we got little change out of Sonecha and Alpesh Gorsia. Although the bouncy pitch and slow outfield was far from Matt’s ideal surface, he battled on and ran hard as Barath went for his shots. The stand was developing nicely when Jono Roskin, in the middle of a real testing spell, trapped Matt LBW – though the ball looked to be going over the stumps. One wicket brought two again, as Barath nicked Alpesh to the keeper to leave us 69 for 4.

It was this point Edgware imposed themselves on the game, as spinner Prash Pindolia grabbed three quick wickets. Kamaal Poudyal, on his Allstars debut, began with some classy cuts and glides down to third man before Pindolia knocked back his stumps, and Gren Thompson soon followed in similar fashion after one crunching blow. Batting at the rarefied heights of number five, I drove Pindolia down the ground before becoming his third victim, slashing to gully. We were 87 for 7 and in big trouble with teacher.

Skipper Raghavendra wasn’t going to go down without some sterling resistance, and with debutant Pradosh Bose providing good support, the hundred was raised. Raghavendra smacked two enormous sixes, one down the ground and the other over square leg, before he was bowled going for another big hit. Our third debutant Thomas Loussouam, our host school’s French Assistant, was getting a good education on the boundary about the rules of cricket from his new team mates as he prepared to take part in his first ever game, and bravely came out to face the music. Boyaka bowled him to finish the innings, and we were all out for 115 – a creditable effort against such a strong attack, but we needed everything to go our way to have a chance of defending it.

Edgware opener Jeet Swaminarayan is one of their star pupils, being the youngest player to score a hundred for their club, and we knew he and fellow opener Josh Brown would examine us to the full. Gren and Amiya were to pass this test with flying colours as both of them began with immaculate opening spells. But we were to come unstuck as a succession of catches, none of them easy, went down in the outfield. My own day in the field was to finish early as my calf pinged at the first ball I chased – there is just something about this fixture that leaves us walking wounded, following Sheahan’s and Slats’ injuries in our last encounter with Edgware – and we were grateful to Jono for taking the stick from his team mates as he joined the fray as a substitute fielder.

Pradosh marked his debut with a fine spell as we continued to limit the scoring rate, and Kamaal also began nicely with his left arm wrist spin – but still the wickets wouldn’t come. The hundred opening stand was just one away when, in his final over, Amiya got the gold star he deserved, a crunching yorker bowling Brown three short of his fifty, and Parmar followed three balls later as, finally, we held onto a catch, Barath taking it at cover. Following Jeet’s retirement as he reached his fifty, Gren was also to be rewarded for his studies as he bowled Pindolia in his final over – but Edgware eased over the line with the winning runs.

So the 2024 Allstars begin with a school report full of praise for effort and determination in the toughest of examinations. But the PE teacher notes on our catching: must do better. And the club secretary learns his lesson from the school physio: do remember to stretch properly before taking the field.

We were all delighted to have got our season under way (and the forecast rain had stayed away), as we gathered in the splendid Rose & Crown pub with our opponents to celebrate an enjoyable day’s cricket. Amiya’s all-round performance made him the day’s head boy – but man of the match must go to Pablo for his Herculean efforts in securing us his school’s excellent facilities to enable the game to go ahead. But the next exam isn’t far away, as we head to Surrey to face Valley End next Sunday.