A relentless Sutton top order reached a testing target of 274 with two balls to spare to win by six wickets against a Mill Hill Village Friendly XI in a re-run of the first fixture played at Burtonhole Lane 80 years ago.

Village captain for the day, David Hickey, won the toss and chose to bat, a decision that quickly looked vindicated as Momin Sadozai set about dismantling the Sutton attack.

MHVCC vs Sutton CC at Burtonhole Lane, May 17 2026 - full scorecard

Although he and opening partner Ahmed Jan, from the Under-17s, were kept honest by the occasional lifting delivery, it wasn’t long before sizzling Sadozai was launching his peachy straight drives over the bowlers’ heads.

Two dropped catches looked to be costing Sutton dear before Sadozai eventually holed out at deep mid-off when a century looked a certainty.

80 years at Burtonhole Lane: special coverage

Ahmed's Under-17 teammate Hasan Ather, one of four juniors in the Village XI, ensured the momentum wasn't lost, timing the ball beautifully in a destructive knock that saw one enormous six cannon off a tree in the cow field in Burtonhole Lane Farm, never to be found. He retired not out at 50.

Skipper Hickey settled into his innings and even hit a rare six of his own, a hoik over deep square leg, in a better-than-a-run-a-ball knock of 43, but the Sutton attack was able to make persistent breakthroughs at the other end, getting the occasional ball to jag back and keep low to claim a couple of LBWs.

Ather ensured momentum wasn’t lost when he came back in at the fall of the ninth wicket, slamming a couple more sixes, taking the Village to their imposing total.

That didn’t faze Sutton's seasoned batters, who have seen it all before. Manish Srivastava rode his luck as he scored the bulk of the runs in an opening partnership of 87 with Jonny Rosenthal, frequently going aerial but narrowly avoiding the fielder. After that stand was broken, Sutton was still able to strike regular boundaries and build sizeable partnerships throughout their innings, capitalising on anything short and wide and aided by a slack Village shelling two straightforward chances in the field.

Yet incisive around-the-wicket bowling from left-arm pacer Mohammad Soleja and an effective holding role from seamer Jan Temori, who extracted nibble from the Pavilion End, brought the Village back into the game. When only three runs were conceded in the 38th over, the hosts were firm favourites.

But in the penultimate over, which cost 13, an audacious ramp shot from Sutton skipper Balajee Ramalingam, who, like his teammates, arrived at the ground in a handsome striped club blazer, turned the tide once again. What would our forebears of 80 years ago have made of Ramalingam's out-of-the-box, modern-day inventiveness? Then Sartaj Kajla went to his 50 with a six over cow corner off the third ball of the final over and the damage was done. In that inaugural 1946 fixture, the Village made 53 before bowling Sutton out for 42, winning by 11 runs. Now, Sutton's revenge, eight decades in waiting, was complete.

This anniversary clash felt a fitting way to mark that inaugural Burtonhole Lane fixture — the same opponents serving up another edge-of-the-seat encounter but piling on the runs in a way those pioneers of 1946 could scarcely have imagined.