A Review of the 2025 Season
The 2025 Season was blessed with continuous glorious dry and warm weather but unfortunately was overall a poor season for the Club
The 1st xi having been relegated to Division 1 inevitably lost a few players and struggled for results with a reliance on a small number of key players. With seven of the first eight matches resulting in defeats a mid-season revival took place but some more poor form towards the end of the season saw us flirt with relegation but in the end we finished eighth. The Cup Competitions saw little success with us out of all 3 competitions before the end of May. In the National we were well beaten by Bishops Stortford, then in the League Cup having beaten Loughton we were paired with Division 3 West Essex only to lose after amassing 313-1. The T20 saw us fall at the first hurdle to a strong Wanstead side. The majority of the runs were scored by Joe Byrnes (615) and Andrew MacGregor (608) well supported by Rishi Roy (472) and Stuart Budd (441). Also teenager Dhruv Verma showed plenty of promise for the future with a mature 119 v Old Southendians. Wickets proved hard to come by with overseas Matt Liberman and George Duke leading the way with 24 apiece.
The 2nd xi started the season well with great victories over Hornchurch and Wanstead but the form really tailed off in the second half of the League season which saw us return just one victory in that period and inevitably we finished bottom of the Premier Division. Ali Butt (455) and Jibran Mirza (437) were the leading run scorers. Again there was a shortage of wicket takers with Talal Sultan (21 wickets in 11 games) being the only bowler to return more than 15 wickets.
The 3rd xi now in the Premier Division, their season mirrored the 2nd xi season with a reasonable first half of the season followed by a collapse in the second half with the season ending with a run of seven consecutive defeats. In the end we finished 9th but were 19 points short of safety. Raja Tariq was the leading run scorer with 413 but only two players averaged over 30 resulting in a shortage of runs. With the ball promising youngster Jacob Cox took 23 wickets but no other bowler took more than 15.
The 4th xi in Premier Division West once again was incredibly tight. We finished 8th but were only 17 points behind the 4th placed side. Typically for a 4th xi the side resembled a bit of a railway station with only one player making more than 11 appearances. Top run scorers were Nick Van Arkle (282) and Stuart Cox (262) but no one scored a century. Best bowlers were Stuart Cox with 21 wickets backed up by youngsters Imran Chaudhary (19) and Greg Heath (17)
The 5th xi only won two games out of ten but a number of the defeats were in fact very close games - so the results did not reflect the performances against a number of adult opponent sides. Again runs were in short supply but the side’s strength was its bowling with numerous youngsters showing promise. Paul Adshead led the run scoring with 212 and the promising seamer Ben Williams took 16 wickets. 13 year old Jack Adshead incredibly took a hat trick in one of the games v Buckhurst Hill.
On Sundays we reverted to two regular teams with Ross Simmons captaining the As and Raja Tariq leading the Bs
For a long part of the season it looked like the Sunday As were on course to win the Chess Valley League but 2 defeats in the last 3 league games saw Harrow Town pip us to the title -so we had to settle for runners-up. The key game was a home match v St Albans on 3 August and having scored a huge 322-7 it was very disappointing to lose by 5 wickets but we were up against some quality opposition batting. Despite this 16 games were won, providing further evidence that Chingford continues to put out strong Sunday teams. Ali Butt hit 957 runs and Harry Houldsworth 648 before his mid-season emigration to Australia. Captain Ross Simmons also chipped in with 527. With the ball off spinning duet Scott Prestedge (32) and George Duke (31) led the way with overseas Matt Liberman contributing 23 at just 13 apiece.
The B team having regular fixtures for the first time in a number of years returned to some old opponents we had not seen for many years and also played a few sides Chingford had never played before. Overall the side played creditably and with numerous younger players getting regular Sunday cricket it can only help their development and results were quite even with nine wins and eight defeats. Freddie Cox, Raja Tariq and Mobin Mohammedi all contributed over 400 runs whilst Greg Heath (17) and Mobin Mohammedi (16) led the way with the wickets. One of the highlights of the year was our first ever visit to Watton at Stone where the host side in August put on a Christmas Dinner for us at tea time, with roast turkey, pigs in blankets, stuffing etc. Well played the Watton at Stone tea lady, you have a great sense of humour!
The Colts Section goes from strength to strength and it is great for the club’s sustainability to see so many colts and former colts populating the senior sides. Colts Chairman Ian Butcher must have been looking on proudly as our U13s won the Met Essex Len Stentiford Cup beating Wanstead comfortably in the final.
After many months of planning, in October Chingford U15s embarked on a week long tour to South Africa. This was the first occasion Chingford CC in its history had ever played a game outside the UK.
The year ended on a sad note with the untimely passing of Peter Joslin who was just 67 years of age. Peter had made an immense on the field contribution to the Club, being 2nd in the all time batting records and 11th in the all time bowling with 26764 runs and 859 wickets according to the records we currently have.