The Baltic Exchange Cricket Club (BECC) played its first T20 match of the Summer Season against Howe Robinson Partners (HRP). BECC fielded a strong side of players from all corners of the London Shipping World from S&P to Dry Chartering to Research to LNG.

Captain on the day Charlie Russell (Hartland) lost the first toss of the season and Guy Hindley of HRP decided to put his team into bat. They started strongly scoring 39 from their first 6 overs with the loss of just 1 wicket. Will Bowden (Trafalgar) bowling Guy Hindley, taking his record against Guy to 3 wickets from 3 matches. Ed Hodgson was the next to go, some fantastic bowling from Tom Pollington (Friend of the Club looking for a role in shipping) saw him edge a drive into the safe hands of James Harris (Gibsons) at Gully. Will Fray and Alex Martin were the next in for Howe Robinson, who both looked very good in the middle. Will retiring on 27 not out and Alex Martin following shortly after on 25. Unfortunately for HRP, the next 6 batsmen were only able to add 17 runs to the total. Some great bowling from Jack Matthews (Seafort) and Charlie Russell (Hartland) saw them both take 2 wickets, although Jack would have taken 3 wickets if it was not for the fact we were playing first-ball grace. Ben Regan (AM Nomikos) and Nathan Roberts (Hartland) took the other 2 wickets of the innings leaving HRP on 127-8 from their 20 overs.

All things considered, it was a challenging score to chase, especially with the light fading. Jack Matthews (Seafort) and Aditya Trivedi (Poten & Partners) got us off to a cracking start both retiring not out, Jack on 29 from just 16 balls and Aditya on 28 from 20 balls. Jack hit what was probably shot of the day with a glorious flick off the pads. Next in to bat at 3 was Ben Regan (AM Nomikos) who had no interest in allowing the openers to take all the limelight. He also retired quickly with 27 off 20 balls. James Harris (Gibsons), batting 4 and taking guard on middle stump, was rapped on the pads in his second over. He was given out LBW much to his dismay, gesticulating that it must have been going down leg and looking genuinely bewildered he had been given out. It looked pretty plumb from where we were standing!!! Louis Worrall (Seven Seas) was the next to go, bowled by Price for 8 runs. Luckily for the Baltic we were in the safe hands of Captain Charlie Russell (Hartland) and Sebastian Norris (Trainee Shipbroker) who took us home. The latter scoring 22 from just 11 deliveries.

Click here to read the full scorecard.

It was a great start to the season for the BECC and a lovely evening, with a fantastic BBQ courtesy of our hosts Barnes CC. We always look forward to the HRP fixture and this one did not disappoint. All eyes now look forward to our upcoming one-day fixture versus Lloyds of London.