Team Brown claimed a 21-run victory in King’s Road Intraclub 2026 after a valiant effort from all involved that saw all 70 overs bowled on a glorious spring day at Dundonald Rec.

Batting standouts from Sham (38*) and Oscar (26*) for Team Brown and Dougie (41) and Sherman (34*) for Team Mahony meant both teams surpassed 200 runs, while bowling from Bibby (2-14 off 5) and Lax (1-13 off 3) showed there was enough in the pitch for the seamers and spinners. 

Intraclub is the place to start looking for signs of a positive season. If confident cover drives are a good sign, then the first and last balls of this contest – Pinkney pinging it through the covers to kick start the innings for Team Brown and Sherman finding the same gap in the early evening light – can only mean the Road are on for a barnstormer. 

Order, order!

The first challenge for Brown’s first foray into captaincy was to shuffle the batting lineup due to late arrivals. Nimit jumped up from 6 to open alongside Pinkney and their collective 25 off the first 4 overs (a couple more if yours truly put down a 4 on the scorebook, sorry Pinks!) set the platform. Pinkney fell to a snick behind taken by Giles off the bowling of Doug Swallow before Lax bowled Nimit in an over that went for just 1 run. Sham came in to hit an unbeaten 38 – via a retirement at 25 – including a lovely uppercut for four. 

Keats and Watson both arrived in time for their innings with the former hitting four boundaries on his way to 23 before being caught by Mahony off the bowling of Dave Hughes. Watson settled into his innings, hitting 23 off 46 before succumbing to Dougie’s bowling and Sherman’s sharp glovework. 

Crash, bang, wallop

Oscar’s position at 6 in the order (after being moved up to a potential number 3 at one point in the day) was justified with an entertaining 26 off 10 deliveries. Will Scott came in for his first King’s Road innings and steady start preceded an inaugural boundary and a final score of 21 before Doug Swallow got his second wicket via a catch from his captain. 

Runs from Bumblebibby (13), including two boundaries from the first two balls, plus Ali (2) – trapped LBW by Mahir, and Brown (5*) got the Team Brown up to 222 from the full 35 overs. 

Teas me, teas me

If the cricket could be seen as a precursor or warmup for the season, the teas selection on Saturday featured some statements of intent for the prized Teasmaker of the Year Award. Take a look at that spread!

Partnerships

With 223 set to win, Team Moans would be right in feeling that a couple of good partnerships could set the foundation for the win. Sherman and Fagan were tasked with the duty of opening up a before building their innings carefully. The former made it to 28 with three boundaries from four balls while Giles at the other end creeped his way in partnership, eventually retiring on 25. 

Dougie, as with Sherman and Giles, started his innings with four dots but once he got away, he got away quickly, hitting two fours and two sixes in seven balls to retire swiftly with Conor at the other end building steadily. 

Despite tidy bowling from Bibby, Rossi, Will Scott and Nimit, wickets were proving to be harder to come by. Conor retired bang on 25 bringing Dave Hughes to the crease alongside Lax who both accumulated into double digits before Hughes fell to the first wicket of the innings, bowled by Bibby for 16 and Rossi got the wicket of Lax for 13. 

At a leg glance 

Mahir came to the crease as a relative unknown and worked two fours, the first a lovely leg-side glance to the boundary, before falling to Ali T’s bowling. With wickets falling, including Doug Swallow falling to Bibby, Team Moans needed a captain’s innings. Mahony came out swinging, a cover drive for four and another boundary before retiring.

The uphill task was left to Hedley and Small to get Team Moans as close to the total before the retired gang joined the party. Hedley fell for 1 via Rossi while Smally held up his side of the bargain with 6* as Dougie returned to the fray. Dougie started with two boundaries and ended on 41 as Rossi got his man. Sherman added 6 more to his retirement total at the end but it wasn’t enough to stop Team Brown winning by 21 runs and concluding a gorgeous day at Dundonald before the cold cans could be unleashed.