Bessborough completed captain Rohan Karkhanis’ challenge set last week after winning the Middlesex Championship title by finishing the season unbeaten.

Although far from their most convincing performance of the year, Bessborough came back with a losing draw at Old Actonians on Saturday to finish the campaign with eight wins, seven draws and no defeats. Their tally of 102 points was five ahead of second place Osterley.

Old Actonians piled on 269 for six declared after 49 overs following a century for South African overseas opener Givon Christian (118) and half centuries for all-rounders Scott Ensom (54) and Jinesh Patel (56). Number eight bowler Ramesh Gunalan (five for three) helped stop the hosts from doing further damage with five wickets in six late order overs.

In reply, Bessborough never looked like chasing down the target, but equally they weren’t in danger of losing thanks to solid partnerships of 46 between openers Ramesh Gunalan (41) and Tharshan Kanagaraj (nine) and 79 between number three batsman Rishi Patel (74) and number five Sherrick Chavda (35). 

Needing to win themselves and hoping for anything other than a win for Enfield to secure promotion from the Middlesex County Cricket League Division Three, Bessborough’s second eleven did their job by winning in no time at home to Wembley.

Wembley were dismissed for 97 in 44 overs with Urooj Ahmed (four for 16), Nitin Modha (four for 60) and Rohan Desai (two for 16) the only bowlers that captain Phil Bush needed to call upon.

Bessborough only required 14 overs to win the game as boundaries came flying off the bats of openers Ahmed (51 not out) and Adil Parker (37). Having arrived from India mid-season Urooj very quickly got back into the Bessborough groove. In just six league games for the second eleven, he scored 241 runs at average of 60.25 and pouched 23 wickets with an average of 13.26.

The early finish meant an agonising wait in the clubhouse to hear of news of Enfield’s match against relegation-threatened Brentham which resulted in Bessborough just missing out on promotion.

Already relegated, the Thirds produced one of their best performances of the season at home to Old Actonians, but couldn’t quite get the last wicket for the win. Bessborough set a formidable target of 248 after a brilliant century from James Wheeler (123) who put on 167 for the second wicket with Richard Edmands (52).

In reply, Bessborough picked up regular wickets with stand-in captain Ian Ridley (three for 20) well supported by his younger charges Sharuban Kanthasamy (two for 28), Hamish Jeyacumar (two for 38), Tom Newland (one for five), Samir Agrawal (one for nine), and Harshil Samaria (0-20). Old Actonians finished on 153 for nine after 44 overs to deny us the win.

Having got themselves back into promotion contention, the Fourths were dealt a cruel blow early in the week when they heard that the opposition for Stanmore – the side Bessborough were hoping to overtake – had conceded, leaving the team with nothing to play for against already promoted S.K.L.P.

Skipper Sahil Hathi decided to experiment and opened the bowling with two players that hadn’t seen much action with the ball all season. The plan worked as Richard Ward (three for 42) took out most of S.K.L.P.’s top order, while Shyam Lakhani (0-18) deserved much more for his excellent eight-over spell.

In the end S.K.L.P. declared on 168 for six after 44 overs as they needed the win to secure the title, while a draw would have given it to Stanmore.

Bessborough continued the experimental approach into their batting and it’s fair to say that apart from Ravi Vyas (11) who impressed on moving from his usual number ten position to the number three slot, it’s not something that will likely ever be repeated as the side were rolled for 65 in 30 overs.