Rayleigh Mount Promotion Charge with Five Wins from Six

It was a near-perfect Saturday for Rayleigh, with five of the six senior sides picking up wins to keep the club’s promotion ambitions firmly on track. The pick of the results came from the 3rd XI, who ended Danbury’s unbeaten Division 6 record. The 1s, 2s, 4s and 6s all added victories of their own, and the 5s came within an agonising single wicket of making it six from six.

The 1st XI travelled to Chelmsford to play Beaulieu Park in an important game that would see a win keep their promotion hopes alive. Winning the toss and batting first, Rayleigh put on 279-7 from their 45 overs – thanks to James Ellis (84) and Sam Keene (44) who put on 144 for the first wicket and Jonathan Cook posted a well made 58. In response, Beaulieu never really got going and lost wickets at regular intervals in the chase. Sam Verrinder (7-1-24-4) was back in the wickets, supported by Mihir Patel (9-2-32-2), leaving the opposition all out on 185. View the full scorecard here.

Playing at home, the 2nd XI welcomed High Roding in another game that would keep any hope of promotion alive in Division 4. Successfully navigating the toss, Rayleigh batted first and posted 287 all out from 44.5 overs, thanks to another great effort from James Balkwill (72) and contributions from Andrew Barker (34), Bala Rajagopal (34), Ryan Hart (37) and Richard Nolde (33). High Roding were railroaded in their attempt to chase down the target, eventually limping to 122 all out within 20 overs. Siva Ranjan (7-1-44-4) was the pick of the bowlers, with Nick Green (3-0-20-3) and Sangeet Prasad (9-1-51-2) adding valuable contributions. View the scorecard here and watch the highlights from the game below.

The 3rd XI made the long journey to Rayne to play top of the league Danbury in Division 6. Danbury, undefeated for the 2026 season, won the toss and elected to field first on a wicket that hadn’t been watered in months. Rayleigh started shakily with wickets falling at regular intervals owing to irregular bounce and variable speed of the deck. With Rayleigh 90-5, enter Ollie Barker (72) and Tom Peppiatt (42) who put on 102 for the 7th wicket and pushed the score up to 208-7 before Ollie fell to a sharp catch in the deep – an excellent and mature innings from the 14 year old on a tricky wicket. Peps was the next to fall, but the tail were able to add some valuable runs and push the total up to a very defendable 239. Jamie Lawson (7-1-16-2) and Riley Hughes (8-0-48-3) opened the bowling and made immediate breakthroughs. With batters scrambling for their helmets against the pace of Lawson, and struggling with the skiddy bowling of Hughes, Danbury were left stranded on 15-3. Despite a middle order resurgence, thanks to some dismissive batting from Lokesh Sampath (46 from 22 balls – including 4 sixes), Freddy Noble (7-1-48-2) and Kalpesh Patel (8-1-16-3) were able to pull the game back and bowl Danbury out for 174. View the full scorecard here.

The 4th XI welcomed Benfleet to the Old Ground, batting first and posting 243-7 from 40 overs. Terry Martin (58) and Shane McDonagh (43*) led the scoring. Benfleet started well in response, with a first wicket stand of 61, but wickets continued to fall. Despite a well made 93* from Jake Sampson, the Benfleet lower order couldn’t keep pace and posted 179-9. Shane McDonagh, the heavy-ball guru, recorded fantastic figures of 8-1-24-4 to help restrain the Benfleet scoring – he was supported by all other bowlers, with everyone chipping in with a wicket each. View the scorecard here.

In the only loss of the day, the 5th XI welcomed Hutton to the 3rd Ground. Batting first, Rayleigh posted 165-10 thanks to helpful contributions from Brad Walker (39), Mark Bailey (31) and Steve Rothon (30). Hutton set about chasing down total sensibly but wickets fell at regular intervals thanks to Ben James (8-1-39-4), supported by Shri Balamurugan (6-0-23-2) and David Archer (7-0-31-2). Sadly, thanks to a 54 run stand for the final wicket, Rayleigh couldn’t quite get over the line and Hutton won the game by 1 wicket with 1.5 overs to spare. View the full scorecard here.

Last, but by no means least, the 6th XI made the journey to Purleigh for the yearly showdown with Alan Brown and his Tillingham side in Division 12. Winning the toss and batting first, Rayleigh posted a convincing 225-7 from their 40 overs with contributions from across the order. Colin Mayor top scored with 33. Tillingham managed to survive 40 overs, in part thanks to Alan Brown who made a well made 61 from 122 balls to keep Rayleigh in the field for the duration of the game. Despite AB’s fortification of the stumps, Tillingham came up short and posted 154-7 from their 40 overs, with Henry Barker (8-3-25-2), Jamie Murray (8-1-20-2) and Arvin Ghataura (4-2-15-2) doing most of the damage. View the full scorecard here.