It was a bitterly cold start to the season as George Howlett led the newly re-branded 3s against an Upchurch side that came down from the league above last season. The pitch was in decent condition for late April and the outfield was a little damp but had coped with the rain well.

Blackheath were put into bat and our openers both dusted off the cobwebs with nice boundaries before being removed early by a tight Upchurch opening spell leaving us 20-2. Then a solid stand from Abu Hasnath and Dilip Bharadwaj started to put us in a decent position. Dilip upon his return to Blackheath looked characteristically solid and rotated the strike well as Abu started to open his shoulders with some classy shots. Dilip was unlucky to be judged LBW for 22 leaving us 79-3 at a crucial point of the innings. Unfortunately a flurry of wickets, including Abu just short of his half century, put Upchurch in the driving seat with us 111-6 and on course for a traditional early season low first innings score. Thankfully a cool head from Divwakar Misshra (22) and some lusty blows from Zihad Hussain and Alex Antunes brought us up to a respectably 160 with Abu's 47 the standout performance.

After a lovely tea and the opportunity to warm up a little it was time for us to take the field and hope to take some early wickets and beat the rain. A wonderful opening spell from Antunes and Saidur Rahman saw them pick up a wicket apiece and leave Upchurch struggling on 9-2. Upchurch knuckled down with keeper Delport taking charge and scoring regularly but wickets continued to fall at the other end with Antunes picking up a second and then spinners taking over. Dilip (1-19) was unlucky again having two catches dropped in consecutive overs, Divwakar bowled nicely to pick up a couple (2-14). Upchurch were 57-6 and teetering on the brink of a big collapse, but Delport was still at the crease and ticking along. He had some support from Philip Mayes, guiding Upchurch into the 90s before pick of the spinners Hassan Khokar (3-6) removed the dangerous Delport (48) and finished off the tail with the returning Antunes who finished with 3-19.

A solid first game and some really encouraging performances - you can check the full scorecard and other match details here. Hopefully the additional strength added to the team this year means we can go one better that last season and gain promotion. Good luck to all next week.