The recent innings of 211 not out by First team all-rounder, Jason McNally, led to a degree of delving into the record books at the club. Actually, to be accurate, it entailed an examination of records held electronically on Play Cricket. Charting club records spanning 250 years of cricket in Harlow I’m afraid would be an impossible task as many records would have been lost forever, after all this club dates back to 1761 long before the founding of the MCC, the first ever Ashes Test and the Battle of Trafalgar for that matter. Marigolds itself goes back 140 years as a cricket ground and not even the regulars at The Scoreboard End were around then – although Bill swears he made a century and Cliff took a ‘Fivefer’ in the inaugural game.

So, pawing over old scorebooks is out the question but thankfully in 2002 records began to be populated on the Play Cricket system online. Our records really only get going on there in around 2008 but over the years they have become an extremely reliable source for black cab drivers with too much time on their hands. The system is not without fault, many Colts games aren’t uploaded and in fact really, it’s only the Essex age group competitions that are with regard to Junior Cricket but for the Shepherd Neame Essex League sides it’s a rich source. Not quite so reliable for our HECL side but many of the 5th XI fixtures in recent years have been included.

Recognising and remember player achievement is all part of the fabric of a club and to this end, and with far too much time on my hands, I set to recording Harlow CC’s records that one can be reasonably confident reflect the last ten to twelve years. Whether this is something that can be retained and updated remains to be seen. In compiling the information, I decided to only include Saturday cricket (except of course the Colts records where shown) and to restrict it to League fixtures only to ensure a degree of consistency in the data. Bowling Woodford Green 3rd XI out pre-season for thirty odd may have mild amusement value at the time but hardly counts for record keeping purposes.

I have completed records for the First XI only, they are the pinnacle of the club after all, as well as the records for all the sides. I hope some of you find them of value, possibly with recollections of playing a part in games where records have been set (I myself have fond memories of getting ‘pad rash’ watching Jack Sykes record the all-time top individual score in 2016 for the 5th XI), some of you may try and beat them in the coming weeks (Macca I suspect for one) whilst others will already have nodded off – cricket is a great statistical game but I guess it’s not for everyone. So, without further ado please find your club BATTING records below with BOWLING and FIELDING to come in subsequent posts unless I get sacked off by Alan Howick for boring the entire club in the interim period.

HIGHEST INDIVIDUAL INNINGS (ALL)

Jack Sykes 239* Hockerill 3rd (H) 2016 5th XI
Jason McNally 211* Ardleigh Green (A) 2019 1st XI
Jack Sykes 185 Tye Green 1st (H) 2017 5th XI
Ahmed Khawaja 165* Ardleigh Green (H) 2013 1st XI
Ahmed Khawaja 158* Hutton (A) 2015 1st XI

HIGHEST INDIVIDUAL INNINGS (1st XI)

Jason McNally 211* Ardleigh Green (A) 2019
Ahmed Khawaja 165* Ardleigh Green (H) 2013
Ahmed Khawaja 158* Hutton (A) 2015
Ahmed Khawaja 153* Buckhurst Hill (A) 2010
Ahmed Khawaja 145* Loughton (A) 2016

TOTAL LEAGUE RUNS in a SEASON

Ahmed Khawaja 1170 2010
Ahmed Khawaja 1005 2016
Ahmed Khawaja 837 2013
Mashood Iqbal 813 2018
Jack Sykes 795 2017

TOTAL LEAGUE CAREER RUNS at HARLOW CC

Ahmed Khawaja 6245
Rehman Ahmed 4877
Rob Coldwell 4438
Simon Baulcomb 3701
John Perry 3373
Alan Jones 3105
Sunni Ali 3026
Faisal Javed 2907
Ken Aldred 2810
Dip Basnet 2574

HIGHEST ADULT PARTNERSHIP

Jack Sykes & Ben Yeats 326 Hockerill 3rd 2016 (1st Wicket Partnership) 5th XI

HIGHEST INDIVIDUAL INNINGS (COLTS)

Alan Jones 215 Gidea Park (A) 2014

HIGHEST PARTNERSHIP (COLTS)

Alan Jones & Nathan Khelawon 372 Gidea Park 2014 (2nd Wicket) U13

HIGHEST INDIVIDUAL INNINGS (CUP ONLY)

Abhishek Jhunjhunwala 223 Leigh on Sea (A) 2009 1st XI