Uncategorized

Mandarins overcome battling Allstars on opening day

/ stannesallstarsblog / Leave a comment

Dulwich Sports Ground, Sunday 3 May 2026.

Mandarins 113-2 (22.4 overs, Jules Lowin 50 ret) beat St Anne’s Allstars 112 all out (31.5 overs, Gren Thompson 40, Anindya Roy 30) by 8 wickets.

Scorecard

Allstars Debuts: Mikaiil (Mak) Nuur, Ross Blackmore.

Report by Gren Thompson- Photos by Jimmy Scott and Gren Thompson

On an unexpectedly sunny Bank Holiday Sunday afternoon in Dulwich, the Allstars raised the curtain on their 2026 season. Based on how things began, one can only assume that the Allstars spent most of the winter walking under countless ladders, opening several umbrellas indoors, and spilling salt by the skip load.

After Mandarins won the toss and put the Allstars into bat, the 2026 season began with Allstars stalwarts Matt Biss and Samer Hafiz striding out to the wicket. It took only two balls for the misfortune to strike. An easy single to mid-off saw Matt jog through to the non-striker’s end. At that point, time and space conspired against the Allstars. The innocuous looking return throw back to the bowler collided flush with Matt’s face and, two balls into the new season, the Allstars were a man down with concussion-like symptoms. Only two balls later, Mandarins’ skilful opening bowler, Rob Eastaway, found a perfect length and late movement to nick-off Samer without troubling the scorers. One over, one injury, one wicket and only one run.

The new batters at the wicket, Richard Slatford and debutant Ross Blackmore, looked comfortable and navigated the next few overs without alarm. However, Mandarins struck twice in the 5th over. First, Ross mis-timed a drive and looped a catch to point. Slats was then run out by a direct hit from the Mandarins’ wicketkeeper Jules Lowin who expertly splattered the stumps from short fine leg.

Barathwaj Nagarajan and Anindya Roy steadied the Allstars innings with some fine strokes to put on a stand of 29 for the 4th wicket. However, again, a flurry of quick wickets pegged back the Allstars batters. Saad Hasan, bowling with good pace, sent two Allstars packing. Barathwaj edged a good delivery to slip and Ben Hampton got an unlucky grubber that snook below his defences and into the base of the stumps. From the other end, Harry Wigram clean bowled Allstars’ second debutant Mak Nuur, to make it 48-6. 

Skipper Gren Thompson joined Roy at the wicket, and together they attempted to push the Allstars score towards respectability with continued attacking intent. Roy was starting to look set for a big score before he missed a full, straight delivery from Nikhil Gidwani and was dispatched leg before wicket for a fine 30. With the Allstars languishing on 75-7, Matt attempted to return to the middle – but was still feeling the affects of his early incident and soon nicked a good ball from Abhijit Nair to slip.

That left Iain Wilson and Gren to counter-attack, and a series of firm shots and proactive running between the wickets brought up the Allstars’ 100. Yet, not long after the three figures were registered, Gren fell to a well held catch at extra cover, ending up with 40 off 36 balls. The ever-sprightly Jimmy Scott joined Iain for the last wicket – but another piece of excellent Mandarins fielding saw Iain run out for 6 and the Allstars innings closed on 112 all out.

In the second innings of the match, an excellent opening spell from Ben Hampton gave the Allstars brief hope of making a competitive game of things. Ben trapped Mandarins’ opening batter, Tim Baxter, lbw in the 4th over to put the hosts 7-1. However, the Mandarins’ top order proved too resilient and too composed for the Allstars attack and cantered towards victory while offering few chances to the bowlers. Late in the day Barathwaj found enough turn to trouble the batters and deservedly bagged a wicket when he bowled Mandarins’ other opener, Wahaj Siddiqui, for 36. A close to flawless 50 from Mandarins’ Lowin guided the hosts to an 8 wicket victory that rarely looked in doubt. 

In the spirit of an early 90s pop classic, things can only get better for the Allstars this season. Hopefully next week’s trip to Valley End will bring better luck and the first Allstars victory of 2026.

The Allstars Quarter Century – 10 great bowling performances

/ stannesallstarsblog / Leave a comment

In the second part of our look back through our 25 years as the Allstars, it’s now the turn of the bowlers to shine – both solo displays and in pairs. Click on the links for match reports and photos for each of their greatest days!

Tristan Haddow-Allen 6-37 v Trengilly Wartha, Cornwall, 2002

Tristan’s batting record for the Allstars is so phenomenal, it’s easy to forget what he also did for us with the ball – and his greatest bowling day came in our club’s breakthrough victory, on our maiden tour to Newquay. With a modest total of 149 to defend, he bowled like a demon to take out Trengilly Wartha’s top three in his opening spell. With the eighth wicket pair digging in, victory looking like slipping away from us – but, in unbearable tension, Tristan returned to strike three times more to take us to a win for the ages.

James Devlin 5-8 v Mighty Wanderers, Barn Elms, 2004

Devers’ whole-hearted efforts for our club spanned over a decade, enlivening the Allstars both on and off the field. This game was his finest hour, as he  demolished Mighty Wanderers’ batting line-up with five wickets in one incredible spell. His heroics enabled us to bowl out Wanderers for 109, and we knocked off the runs to win comfortably by 5 wickets.

Jon Ryan 3-20 v Salix, Oxford, 2009

Our rivalry with Salix was a spicy one, with that little bit of needle adding to every fixture. On the day when Jimmy Anderson and Monty Panesar conjured an unlikely escape for England in the Ashes Test in Cardiff, we set Salix a target of 145, which they thought they’d reach easily.  But they’d reckoned without Jon, the man with a thousand nicknames, who bowled the spell of his life to blow away their top order. A determined Salix fightback took them to within 20 of the target with five wickets standing – but some fabulous death bowling finished the job for one of our greatest victories.

Paul Bowman 4-5 and Paul Nicol 4-9 v Eymet, France, 2010

An overseas tour win had proved elusive – but, on a converted rugby field in the Dordogne, we finally did it thanks to two outstanding bowling displays. KP started it by dismissing both Eymet’s openers and then came back to finish the innings off, and “Crazy Horse” had his finest moment in an Allstars shirt as he wrecked their middle order. We were set a target of 112 and had a few wobbles along the way, but eventually got home by 4 wickets.

Martyn Langridge 6-20 v Edgware, Mill Hill, 2017

Edgware are a league cricket side and one of our toughest opponents – but this day belonged to our dear, departed friend Martyn. Chasing 162, Edgware looked comfortable at 87-3 before “Lofty” entered the fray to turn the game on its head – taking a superb hat-trick before working his way through the lower order, to take us to a memorable victory with the best bowling figures in our history.

Ashwin Rattan 4-16 and Joe Silmon 3-24 v Gentlemen of West London, Ealing, 2019

Our third win over our great rivals the Gents was a team effort – but among many heroes, Ash and Joe stood out with their greatest spells for our club. Chasing 179, the Gents’ formidable batting line up were handily placed at 98-2 before the spin twins got to work – causing an incredible collapse to transform the game and bring about victory by just 25 runs.

Jagath Dasari 4-14 and Sam Waddicor 4-31 v Corridor, Great Missenden, 2021

2021 was a big year for the Allstars, as we emerged from lockdown to have one of our most successful seasons – and on a fine day in Buckinghamshire, we launched it with two champagne bowling displays to cruise to victory. After Corridor had got off to a good start, Sam and Jagath sliced their way through their batting line-up to bowl them out for 94 – Jagath topping it with a direct hit run out – and we won with 16 overs to spare.

Sheahan Arnott 5-5 v NCI, Cambridge, 2021

This year had so much great Allstars bowling, it could make a list all on its own. Sheahan is another who has given much to our club on and off the field – and, on a scorching day on historic Parker’s Piece, he produced his greatest spell for us. Against a strong NCI team, we had only 147 to defend – but Sheahan made it look easy, beginning in style with an outstanding opening spell of 4-1. NCI fought back strongly – but Sheahan returned to complete his “Michelle” as we got home by just 17 runs.

Pradesh Deveraj 4-52 v Railway Taverners, Highgate, 2023

2023 was also a strong season featuring many close contests, and Pradesh led the way with the ball with 15 wickets in a debut season to dream about. On an epic day in north London, Taverners looked like they were running away with it until Pradesh returned for a second spell of 4-11 to swing the game. It was the most Herculean of performances, his pace barely dropping in 7 overs despite having been under an injury cloud the previous week. His efforts looked like they’d be in vain – but, out of nowhere, we took the last three wickets with the scores level to snatch the first tie in our history.

Mathan Olaganathan 5-13 and Shahed Ahmed 4-15 v Mighty Wanderers, Ham, 2025

Another excellent joint bowling effort helped us retain the James Abrahams Trophy with ease. Mathan began with one of our most devastating opening spells, taking a wicket in each of his first four overs, before Shahed got to work on the middle order to reduce Mighty Wanderers to 61-8. Wanderers gamely battled back into the contest – but Mathan and Shahed returned to finish off the innings and set up a 7-wicket victory.

The Allstars Quarter Century – 10 great innings

/ stannesallstarsblog / Leave a comment

2026 is a milestone year for the Allstars, as it’s our 25th anniversary as a fully organised team.

As we look forward to our new season, here’s a first look back at some of our greatest days of the last quarter century with the bat – click on the link to the match report and photos for each game.

We haven’t forgotten the bowlers – they’ll follow in Part 2!

Dave Halladay 89* v Brading, Isle of Wight, 2003

Dave’s classic counter-attacking was a stand out feature of our early years – and his finest hour came on our Isle of Wight tour. After a top-order collapse had left the Allstars reeling at 44-5, leaving only the tail for support, he took the attack to Brading with this imperious innings. That got us to a final total of 177, and a tour victory for a second season in a row.

Simon Begley 89* v Gentlemen of West London, Surbiton, 2005

Wins don’t come any bigger than the Gents, and each of our three victories over them has required one or more Allstars to play out of their skin. On this famous day, it was “Scratch” who took the fight to our old rivals. It was the loneliest of efforts, with only Paul Nicol also reaching double figures – but the Gents could not find a way past the Ulsterman’s broad bat. Our eventual score of 153-8 was more than defendable, James Devlin leading the way with the ball to victory.

Tristan Haddow-Allen 111* v A Few Good Men, Berkhamsted, 2006

No Allstars batting history would be complete without an innings from Tristan, who carried us on his shoulders for over a decade – his 4000 runs and eight centuries for our club being a record unlikely to ever be beaten. Batting right through our overs allocation, and putting on a colossal stand of 191 with Tim Ross, we looked in command – but every run proved precious. A Few Good Men were almost as good as their name, with the game still in the balance until the final ball. But they couldn’t hit the six off it they needed to win, and we breathed a mighty sigh of relief.

Damian Radcliffe 120 v Eglingham, Northumberland, 2010

After our early tour successes, we had a long wait for our next win on tour – and it came on a glorious day in rural Northumberland. After a quiet start to his Allstars career, Damian picked the perfect moment to come out of his shell. Facing a formidable target of 214, we were 39-3 before he took command with a stupendous innings to take us to victory with two overs to spare. And he almost made it two in two the following day with 66 against Corinthians, to set a record tour batting aggregate which remains to this day.

Paul Bowman 91 v Gentlemen of West London, Barnes Common, 2011

“KP” has been a rock for the Allstars both on and off the field, and this day stands out as his greatest as we beat the mighty Gents for a second time. Having already played his part with two wickets with the ball to limit the Gents to 181-6, he took charge with the bat to ease us to victory and begin our second decade in style.

Neale Adams 93* v Mighty Wanderers, Mill Hill, 2011

Another stand-out innings by a stalwart who has given our club so much. It was a bolt from the blue – Neale’s only fifty for our club – but undoubtedly his finest hour. Facing a challenging target of 196, he took on all the Wanderers bowlers in a breathtaking knock to take us to a comfortable 8-wicket victory.

Sam MacDonald 105 v Gentlemen of West London, Barnes Common, 2014

Sometimes the greatest of innings can be in defeat. Norfolk’s finest has three Allstars hundreds to his name – but this one stands out as his most memorable. With an enormous target of 230 to chase, Sam took on the Gents’ attack almost on his own. His strokeplay was beautiful to behold, and while he was still in, we dared to dream. But once he fell, we couldn’t quite get over the line, and the Gents sneaked home by just 23 runs.

Pete Cresswell 91 v Mighty Wanderers, Crouch End, 2018

A memorable day for our Kiwi skipper, who gave his heart and soul to the club for over a decade. We could all scarcely believe our eyes as Pete and Ashwin Rattan rewrote our record books with a monster opening stand of 214. The whole Allstars community were willing him on to a hundred, but he couldn’t quite get there – but our imposing total proved more than enough to retain the James Abrahams Trophy with Wanderers only able to bat for a draw.

Sam Perera 106* v Gradcasts, Mill Hill, 2021

Another who has given much to the Allstars cause over a long period, this knock was the greatest of a fabulous summer for Sam. Coming in to bat with the Allstars wobbling at 32-3, Sam settled our nerves before running riot to score the first hundred by an Allstars regular for seven years, sharing an unbroken partnership of 192 with Steyn Grobler. It was more than enough to take us a crushing victory by 150 runs.

Raghavendra C R 100* v Mighty Wanderers, Barnes Common, 2023

Perhaps the finest of them all, in an amazing game at Barnes which had just about everything. Facing a target of 175, we were in desperate trouble at 61-6 – but while Raghav remained at the crease, we never stopped believing in victory. We still needed 46 when the ninth wicket fell – but Raghav continued to take the attack to Wanderers while shepherding number 11 Pradesh Deveraj to take us to one of our greatest victories with just one ball to spare.

V for Victory in the Vis Vineyard

/ stannesallstarsblog / Leave a comment

Croatia Tour match reports by Garreth Duncan – Photos by Anindya Roy, Garreth Duncan, and opposition

Click here for more photos from our amazing Croatia tour

Saturday 27 September 2025. St Anne’s Allstars 172-8 (30 overs: Anindya Roy 47*) beat Sir William Hoste CC 78 all out (25 overs: Gren Thompson 4-24) by 94 runs.

SWH v Allstars Saturday scorecardDownload

Overseas wins are precious indeed. Just ask Europe’s golfers, who put us all through an emotional wringer on singles day at the Ryder Cup before finally scrambling over the line at Bethpage. Their long wait for an away victory was exceeded only by our own, it being 15 years almost to the day since Vivek Seth led us to victory in the Dordogne. And on a glorious sunny day in Croatia, it was fitting that an Allstars side containing six survivors from that famous day in Eymet combined with our new generation to take us to victory in fine style.

Vis had long been on our radar as a possible tour destination, recommended by both Allstars who had toured there with other clubs and by regular opponents. Their ground is a stunning setting within the vineyard owned by Oliver Roki, who set up Sir William Hoste CC in 2002, almost two hundred years after the Royal Navy captain after whom they are named organised cricket on the island during the Napoleonic Wars. A number of banners line the ground, including some curious references to beans (we were to learn why at the lunch interval) and others to the sixes tournament Vis hold each year.

With many of our opponents having jobs in tourism to go to in the evening, we arrived at the ground for a 9am start, almost certainly the earliest in our 25 year history. Before we began, we presented Vivek with a special commemorative cap to mark his 100th appearance for the Allstars. We batted first by arrangement, with SWH’s captain, ex-Lancashire League pro Craig Wear, seemingly harbouring some doubts about the strength of their batting line-up.

Skipper Matt Biss and Samer Hafiz opened up for the Allstars, only to find that, in the bowling department, our hosts were much better than they’d led us to believe. On a bouncy artificial strip, left-armer Damir and Lenko both looked very lively indeed. Damir struck the first blow as Samer edged to Craig behind the stumps, and Matt had almost seen him off when Damir demolished his stumps. Paul “KP” Bowman began well, edging ever closer to the landmark of 1000 runs in Allstars cricket, and Rob Jackson also started positively before he was bowled by Lenko. KP was also just beginning to cut loose when he was bowled by Steve Haslemere, who had organised the first tour to Vis in 2002 with his St Radegund pub team from Cambridge before moving to the island. All of a sudden, we were in a spot of bother at 55-4.

KP’s dismissal brought together our two first time tourists, as Barathwaj Nagarajan joined Anindya Roy at the wicket. Both worked the ball around nicely while finding the odd boundary, with Barath executing some particularly deft glides down to third man, until he took on the wrong fielder and was run out going for a risky second run. I swiped and missed without much timing at my first few balls from Gaga, before one found the middle and flew for a boundary. That shot settled me nicely, and Roy and I kept the scoreboard moving as we pushed for singles while putting the bad balls away. We’d put on 40 at a run a ball before Steve ended my fun with a superb low catch by Craig off an inside edge.

Gren Thompson and Nick Chadwick both quickly came and went to unplayable deliveries from the pacy Vikram Bika, and 138-8 still seemed a few short. Enter Alfie Arrand to supply the perfect finish to the innings, as he and Roy opened their shoulders with 33 coming off the last 4 overs. Roy’s unbeaten 47 was far and away the best of his Allstars career to date, repairing the early damage before accelerating just at the right time, and 172-8 looked more than defendable.

After the second drinks break, we began perfectly as Gren was on the money straight away, breaking the opening stand by wrecking Mediĉ’s stumps. This brought about the key moment of the game as Craig strode to the wicket. The opposition had all told us that he can win games on his own, having hit an unbeaten 120 out of their total of 170 against Burley last weekend. But Alfie was more than up for this challenge, and produced an absolute crackerjack of a delivery which crashed into his pads. After the loudest appeal we could muster, umpire Jono Beagle’s finger went up.

Gren quickly took a second as Serdio was nicely caught by Rob at cover. But if Roy’s innings was to be declared our tour’s “prosecco moment” on our final dinner on Sunday, I was to surprise both myself and the rest of the team by providing the champagne one. Lenko launched Alfie high in the air towards cover point. I called for the catch and ran for it more in hope than expectation, but somehow clung on as it dropped over my shoulder. After just 6 overs, SWH were 24-4 and sinking fast.

Our excellent day in the field was to continue, as Samer soon got amongst the wickets with James Abrahams taking another good catch at extra cover to send Bika on his way. Another soon followed as our generous host Oliver could not keep out a searing delivery from Gren which wrecked his stumps. Ante soon edged to Matt behind the wicket to give Samer a second- but Gren’s was undoubtedly the spell of the day, and he finished it imperiously as he bowled Gaga with his final scheduled delivery. Gren’s 4-24 were the best figures of his long Allstars career, SWH were 45-8 and we hadn’t even reached the mid-innings lunch break.

We were treated to the first helping of our hosts’ superb local cuisine – a great fish stew with beans – with the game seemingly almost won. But, just like the Americans in the Sunday singles, SWH refused to give in without a tremendous fight, as Steve and Vedrun put up stout resistance. After 12 overs, their stand was finally broken as Vedrun hit an excellent delivery from centurion Vivek to Roy at cover. Having pulled up injured after bowling just 3 deliveries in Ibiza, every ball Chadders bowled without breaking down was greeted with cheers, and it was him who finished the job as Steve feathered an edge to Matt before sportingly walking.

SWH were the most generous of hosts, and we were treated to a magnificent traditional Croatian peka dinner and lovely wine at Oliver’s restaurant that evening. The victory party went long into the night … but could we make it two in two the following day?

Sunday 28 September 2025 – two innings match (abandoned)

St Anne’s Allstars 1st innings 103-7 (15 overs: Matt Biss 38*, Samer Hafiz 37) drew with Sir William Hoste CC 1st innings 109-3 (15 overs: Craig Wear 59*, Paul Bowman 2-9).

SWH v Allstars Sunday scorecardDownload

We awoke to the sound of thunder around the island on Sunday morning, and the prospect of any play seemed unlikely. But the weather briefly relented, and we agreed on an Allstars Festival-like Fifteen15 two innings format, with the Allstars batting first by arrangement again.

With last night’s festivities no doubt still swirling in our heads, we quickly crashed to 11-4 before Matt and Samer steadied us with a stand of 79. Gren, playing for the opposition as they were short, bowled KP to leave him stranded on 999 Allstars runs – but 103-7 still seemed like a decent enough first innings total.

Although Chadders’ tour injury curse was to strike again in his second over, KP took a couple of early wickets, and my golden tour weekend continued as I trapped Ivo plumb in front. Craig then showed us what his team had missed out on the previous day as he raced to a fifty to give SWH a narrow first innings lead. But the lightning had been around us all day, and the rain finally arrived at lunch to put an end to the contest. We were more than happy with the draw, and the first unbeaten overseas tour in our history.

We were treated to one more sumptuous lunch before saying goodbye to our hosts and presenting Steve with one of our new Allstars caps for all his help organising the tour from their end. One of the great Allstars tours – where will 2026 take us?