Old Owens Cricket Club

14/09/2026

13/09/2026

A weakened 1’s, featuring 4 second XI regulars, travelled to Sawbridgeworth in the premiership play off yesterday, needing to win to retain premiership status.

At a very decent ground, with a good crowd backing both teams Jake lost the toss and was predictably, given the early start, asked to bat. 2’s stalwart Ben Christensen was asked to open with JJ and after one glorious square drive for 4 was caught at mid on early doors.

JJ and Nairn then got things moving until JJ tried one big shot too many and was castled (46 for 2). This, somewhat surprisingly, brought Captain Jake to the crease and he did a good job, getting us to a promising 116 for 3 (Wickham 38) at halfway (the 25th over). From here anything between 220 and 275 was conceivable.

Sadly we sunk to 153 for 7 (Guilbert 47) and a defendable total looked unlikely. However former Captain Brad Lane was in and with great support from the tail we made it, impressively, to 222 from our 50 (B Lane 32 not out). Well below what we wanted but we had gained momentum and had something to take into the field.

After lunch/tea Jake and Brad opened up with pace and skill as usual. Jake struck twice early on, including an absolute stunner of a diving slip catch from Chris Palmer, to render Sawbridgeworth 20 for 2.

The left handed opener Doran was looking good, despite a few plays and misses against Brad and he and Rudkin saw them to 132 before Rudkin departed. From there we suddenly put ourselves into a possible winning position, as some good bowling and brilliant catching saw us reduce them to 155 for 6.

67 required with 4 wickets in hand and 84 balls remaining.

Unfortunately that was it, as Jack Plom and Michael Hurrell played both solidly and expansively, with some big hitting seeing Sawbridgeworth into the Prem with plenty of balls and 4 wickets in hand. They added 69 in less than 10 overs.

With the resources available the boys did their best against a stronger team on the day. Special mention to part-time off-spinner Ralph Lane, who completed a full 10 over spell, taking 2 for only 32.

We would like to thank everyone who turned up to support the boys yesterday and all who provide support in any way they are able.

So it’s back to The Championship next year. Bring it on!

12/09/2026

https://oldowens.play-cricket.com/website/results/7755143

12/09/2026

More of the same today please JJ Van Der Sandt 🤗🔥 🇿🇦

10/09/2026

Strive With A Will fellas!!!

07/09/2026

Team news coming soon..

06/09/2026

In making his match-winning and relegation avoiding 91 on a very tricky deck at Mill Hill Village yesterday, 3rd XI Vice Captain and Club Treasurer Naman Paropkari achieved a very special career landmark for Old Owens.

Naman has now passed the 5,000 career runs for the club, including 762 runs in the league this year at an average of 68.

Serious striving Naman! Now double up!

06/09/2026

Following defeat to Bishop Stortford yesterday and due to other results not going our way the 1’s find themselves in yet another Premiership play-off. Unlike last year this one will decide if we remain in the Premiership or are relegated back to the Championship

Last season we memorably and dramatically beat North Mymms to gain promotion. Next Saturday we travel to Sawbridgeworth, who have ended as runners up to North Mymms in the Championship.

We would love to have a repeat of the huge crowd we took to Mymms last year, so please let us know if you want to attend and especially if you need transport 🚌

STRIVE WITH A PLAY-OFF WILL!!!!

06/09/2026

Former Captain Ian Tyler writes for the final time this season about a very dramatic end to the 3’s season, featuring Umair’s trousers, or lack of them…

Too quickly we get to the final Saturday of the League cricket season and we have to win in order to have any chance of avoiding relegation.

We are on the road and playing Mill Hill Village 4s one of the stronger teams in our division.

After eventually finding the ground Shaun wins the toss and elects to bowl first but then Umair arrives without a pair of cricket whites and promptly departs again. A case of Missing Trousers and now Missing Umair!

Kejal and Sid open the bowling and after 7 overs MHV are 43 for 0, so Shaun makes a double change, bringing on Naman and Ansh.

Naman exerts some control but Ansh, like our other quicker bowlers, is expensive (although there was a bad drop from his first ball) and after 11 overs they are 75 for 0 and we are staring down the barrel of a huge total.

Shaun brings himself on for the 13th over and 3rd ball one of their openers touches the ball into Freddie's gloves and we have a wicket. 1st ball of his second over and a leg side long hop (very harsh - Ed.)is mish*t to Sid behind leg and we have our second wicket. In the 19th over Shaun picks up his 3rd with a lofted drive to Naman standing at long off and we have managed to keep them to 101 for 3 at drinks. Not great but a massive improvement after the first 11 overs.

The other positive is that Umair has also returned (after 16 overs, with a pair of cricket whites) and Shaun has agreed with their skipper that he can bowl after drinks. Naman finishes his 8 over spell and despite not taking a wicket he had bowled 8 overs for just 16 runs, which was very important.

In the 25th over we get our next break through with a sharp run out of the non -striker and they are 123 for 4 and still looking good for 200. But Umair coming on in the 26th over changes that and in the 28th over he bowls 2 of their batters. With Darren picking up a wicket in the 31st over MHV have been reduced to 140 for 7. This gets even better in the 34th over as Umair clean bowls his 3rd victim and then off the last ball we pick up our second run out. For once we don't show any mercy and in Umair's next over he has their last batter caught behind and MHV are all out for 164. Given the start that is a great result for us as 164 feels like a par score on what is not an easy batting wicket as the bounce is pretty variable (the pitch had not been rolled for 2 weeks as the roller is bust).

Shaun's contribution of 3 for 23 off his 8 overs was extremely valuable, particularly as he got the top order but Umair picks up the weekly bowling prize with 4 for 11 off his 6 overs and was the main reason we were chasing only 164.

The most disappointing aspect of our performance was that we had given MHV 41 extras in their total of 164, which is simply too many! Too many wides and above waist high no balls.

We enjoyed our tea with wonderful samosas provided by Naman and some M&S cakes by Ian.

Ian and H opened the batting and it is fair to say that MHVs opening bowlers were both very decent, bowling at reasonable pace and also accurately. Ian departed for 1 in the 5th over and H for 2 in the 8th over and after 12 overs we were stuck on 12 for 2. After 16 this was 27. But their change bowlers were simply not as good and by 20 overs (just 4 overs later) we had added a further 36 for the loss of Umair and we were 63 for 3 and the game was on. Crucially Naman was in. Freddie stayed with Naman for a few overs getting 8, 9 or 12 runs (depending who you ask) and added a crucial 40 partnership to get us to 80 for 4. Darren followed a few balls later and at 80 for 5 we were wobbling again. Akash came in and added 8 runs before being 6th wicket out in the 30th over with the score on 101. Sid then played a very useful cameo for a quick 12 runs, being out in the 33rd over with the score on 122.

Kejal joined Naman with 6.3 overs left and 43 runs needed but this is when Naman really stepped up and hit a good selection of boundaries to keep our neck in front so that we crossed the finishing line with 10 balls to spare with Kejal on 7 and Naman on an amazing 91.

We had won but would that be enough? Hertford were also successfully chasing down a target at Bengeo, so it came down to whether Holtwhites could restrict WGC to 14 points or fewer. We knew that WGC had got 7 bowling points so we needed them to score less than 185 and finally when their score came in they were all out for 174!

So they got 14 points and finished on the same number of points as us but we had won more games than them. They must be cussing the 5 penalty points they picked up earlier in the season.

So we scraped into 8th and the celebrations could begin as staying up was a good result after what had been a very tough year with poor availability across the club.

The most encouraging aspect is just how many Juniors were playing yesterday across the 2s, 3s and 4s!

This game will however always be remembered as the game of The Missing Trousers.

Lots of photos from last night suggest that some stayed later than was sensible.......!

04/09/2026

Top effort on a Thursday evening from a great group of folk!

Just hope it doesn’t get blown over again today 💨 🤞