Harlow 1st XI returned to winning ways at Marigolds on Saturday with a tense but deserved 2-wicket time win over Barking, chasing 154 with just over two overs to spare. It was a gritty all-round effort that pushes Harlow up to second place in the ultra-tight Division Three table.

After winning the toss, Harlow chose to bowl first — a move that made sense on a pitch offering a bit early on. But there was immediate drama as David Waters pulled up injured in the warm-up, forcing a last-minute change and Rhys Stewart to open the bowling.
Then came a moment that had all the hallmarks of classic Harlow: Tom Garner and Chris Whitworth colliding in the slips, neither taking the catch and both (thankfully) walking away in one piece, but somehow the larger seemed to come off slightly worse. It wasn’t a slick start, but from there, things improved quickly.

Rhys Stewart grabbed the game by the scruff, producing his best spell of the season — 5-63 off 16 overs, full of turn, aggression, and perseverance. He removed both openers and cleaned up the tail to finish the innings in style.

As ever, George Jessey was right there in the action with 3-32, showing control and flight through the middle overs.
Muhammad Umar Raza chipped in with a huge wicket, removing Barking captain Hasnain Qureshi, just as he started to look threatening. It came via a sharp leg-side catch from Alfie Jessey.
Fielding was still a mixed bag — a few chances went begging and too many singles were gifted — but overall, it was a step in the right direction after recent efforts.
Barking were bowled out for 154.

The chase began badly — Chris Whitworth bowled for a duck, barely disturbing the scorers.
But Harlow’s two most reliable batters stepped up once again. Matt Hurley (56 off 56) was all timing and clean hitting, while the returning David Waters (76 off 88) played with typical class and authority, despite carrying an injury.

The pair added 102 for the second wicket, looking set to finish things comfortably.
Then came the now-traditional middle-order collapse.

From 108-1, Harlow crumbled to 140-6, losing five wickets for just 32 runs. Barking’s spinners tightened things up, poor shot selection crept in, and another golden duck for Joe Riddell added to the tension.

Thankfully, George Jessey (14)* kept calm at the end, seeing Harlow home with Rhys Stewart as the side crossed the line in the 32nd over — with more relief than celebration.

It wasn’t the cleanest win, but it was an important one. With results elsewhere going Harlow’s way, the side move up to second — just a few points off the top in what’s becoming one of the closest Division Three seasons in years.
Next up: Woodford Green at home this Saturday — another key fixture as we hit the halfway mark.

2nd XI Report
Harlow made early inroads with the ball after opting to field, reducing the hosts to 30-2. However, a composed and lengthy innings from Matthew Tarr (62 off 97 balls) and a fluent 47 from Abid Azizi steadied the innings. Quick contributions down the order from Lewis Brown (31 off 19) and Mohammed Shamil (28 off 26) propelled Gidea Park to a strong 239 all out.

Harlow’s bowlers put in a hardworking shift:

Jack Fuller led the attack impressively, returning figures of 4 for 45 from his 10 overs.
Amir Farooq backed it up well with 3 for 49 off 13 overs.
Soulat Ali and Abdul Moiz picked up a wicket apiece.

Despite regular breakthroughs, Gidea Park’s lower-order acceleration proved decisive in posting a challenging total.

Second Innings – Harlow CC: 148 all out (35.3 overs)
The chase got off to a disastrous start with opener Abdul Munim dismissed for a duck in the first over. The top order faltered with wickets tumbling at regular intervals. Harlow were quickly reeling at 66-7, with only Amir Farooq (25) providing any temporary resistance.

A sparkling knock from Paddy Matthews, who scored a blistering 51 off 35 balls, briefly reignited hope, but once he fell, the tail couldn’t hold on.

Mohammed Azizi was the star of the show for Gidea Park, tearing through the batting with remarkable figures of 6 for 49 from 14 overs, leaving Harlow all out for 148.

? Summary & Key Moments:
Harlow’s bowlers kept them in the contest, particularly Jack Fuller and Amir Farooq.

The top-order batting collapse, with five players scoring in single digits (including two ducks), left too much for the lower order to do.

Paddy Matthews’ aggressive half-century stood out as a lone bright spot in the innings.

Gidea Park’s well-paced innings, capped with late-innings hitting, gave them a par-plus total that proved too much for Harlow.

Notable Performances:
Jack Fuller (Harlow) – 4/45 and 4 runs
Paddy Matthews (Harlow) – 51 off 35 (10 fours)

Harlow 2nd XI will look to bounce back next week by tightening their top-order batting and building on the promising bowling spells. There were glimpses of fight, but the inconsistency with the bat cost them dearly.

3rd XI Report

Harlow faced against a new team that got promoted this season in Chingford, we lost the toss and bowled first. We got off to a great start with both Bilal and Jauhar picking up a wicket in their first over removing both openers. Jauhar then picked up another 2 wickets to put us in a good position. Both Bilal and Jauhar had a great opening spell and we really needed to make sure we didn’t get too comfortable and keep the pressure on. Harris then came in and got a wicket bowling one of their players with Tyler at the other end also keeping on the pressure on and picking up wickets as well. Tyler then picked up the last wicket which meant that he got 5 wickets in the game. We bowled Chingford out for 145 with 16 overs to spare meaning we get 61 overs to chase down 145.

T Dobson 5/20, J Afaq 3/37, H Hamid 1/25, B Javed 1/42, F Javed 0/7

Our batting didn’t get off to the best of starts with Arshad and Atif falling early, John Perry played some nice shots in his return for a couple of years before he got out as well leaving us 3 down on a difficult wicket. Freno and Eliot then dug in deep and built a partnership and not taking too many risks with so many overs still left. Freno top scored with 35 before getting bowled by the spinner who bowled 16 overs in a row and bowling 9 maidens!! Eliot then also got out for 28 with us still needing 30 runs to win. Jauhar scored a handy 20 to put us close to the target before he and Faz got out. Needing 7 runs to win and only 2 wickets left Harris hit a 4 to put us 3 away from winning he then hit a single to put us 2 runs away from winning. Tyler then flicked one of his legs for 4 to win the game in the 51st over.

F Fahad 35, E Koopowitz 28, J Afaq 20

4th XI
Harlow lost the toss and were asked to bowl on a pitch someone described as a strip of concrete! It certainly was as our feisty opponents decided to take control of the small
boundaries to have a 6 hitting competition and totally make the game dead. Enough said. Positives were 3 run-outs, one being a tasty bit of footwork from Emilia. Freddie Crook the pick of the bowlers amongst the carnage with 1-42 of 10 overs.

In reply we wobbled a bit but had no intention of going for the total which was out of reach over 50 overs. We ended up on 168/6 with contributions from Jon Allen (25), Usman Ali (28) and Nathan McCarthy 16 of 93 balls to hold them off.
Skipper Rob Coldwell (35*) and Dan Knight (8*) steadied the ship as we ended up finishing the game at nearly 8pm.

Never experienced game like it and don’t want to again.
Time to move on and take the positives from this game.

5th XI Report

I know I’m usually chilly and windy Saturday afternoon, Harlow for once too, and decided to bat first.
After some promising batting displays lately it felt like the right decision.

In hindsight, maybe it wasn’t. Bishop Stortford bowlers started with a good line and length picking up a couple of early wickets with Harlow struggling to get the ball off the square.

Some resistance from the younger under 15 players and Musharaf Hussain got Harlow up to 125 all out not a batting performance that has reflected on recent performances. Conrad Schotlz played a great innings late on, putting on a partnership of 43 for the final wicket to give Harlow a sniff of a chance.

Conrad Scholtz 20
Jack Sykes 20
Benjamin Dack 15

In reply, Bishop’s Stortford started aggressive trying to chase the runs as quickly as possible.
A change of bowling got Harlow a way into the game and with a little more luck and a couple of tough chances missed, the game slipped away from us. Despite that a really good spell of bowling by Musharaf kept us in with a chance but it wasn’t our day.

Musharaf Hussain 3-26