In 2008 the 2nd XI were chasing promotion from Division One with a young 19 year old Nicky Ison in his first year as captain. After a crazy last day win away to Saffron Walden, they finished in 2nd place with 209 points, level with South Woodford whose last game was called off due to rain.
During the season the 2nd XI won 9 games and rather surprisingly for an Upminster side, they did them all chasing and this is the report of one of more entertaining games.

Saturday August 23rd 2008
Upminster CC 2nd XI V Ardleigh Green CC 2nd XI
Team:
1. Harry Jenkins
2. Mark Schofield
3. Mike Harrison
4. Rob Bannister
5. Elliot Bussey
6. John Curtis
7. Scott Hammond (wk)
8. James Aggio-Brewe
9. Rob White
10. Nicky Ison (c)
11. Andrew Berry

Match Report from 2008

After two disappointing results, a win was a must to stay as promotion contenders. Green won the toss and decided to bat on a green tint but flat looking pitch. Early tight bowling by the experienced spear-heard Berry and captain Ison put early pressure on the openers. The first wicket fell for 7, as Berry found the outside edge of G.Cooks bat, who was neatly caught by Hammond. The danger man Castle came to the crease and after a few overs was removed by Berry caught in the slips by the bucket hands of Harrison. Upminster were on a roll and Cason soon went caught in the covers by Schofield off Berry again. Skipper Ison joined the party by having Gibbon caught behind by Hammond. Ardleigh Green were in trouble at 22-4. Berry soon nabbed his fourth wicket by having S Brown caught at point by Jenkins. The 2006 bowler of the year R White then joined the attack and after 3 overs had figures of 3-2-2-3 as he ripped through the lower middle order. Green were in all sorts of trouble at 42-8. The 9th wicket feel for 59 as Aggio-Brewe had Srinivasan LBW for 10. Youngster Tom Oakley was joined at the crease by the experienced Geoff Robinson. On what was still a flat deck, these two put the other batsman to shame as showing with abit of application, runs were easy to come by. With every combination and all sorts of bowling tried even the under-rated leg spin of vice skipper M Harrison was not enough to get the final wicket. After 70 overs in the field and the last wicket pair putting on an unbeaten stand-off 119, Ardleigh Green declared on 178 for 9.
Upminster had 1 hour and 20overs to chase down 178 and with a long batting line up was ever confident of doing so. Jenkins and Schofield started steady and looked comfortable at the crease. They soon brought up their 50 partnership as Upminster was building a good platform. Jenkins taking Browne for 16 in one over was one of the highlights. The runs kept flowing as Jenkins brought up his 50. Schofield was soon to follow suit as he also passed 50, which also meant he got to the milestone mark of 500 league runs. Jenkins kept smacking the bowling all over the park and eventually reached a truly beautiful ton. He finished it off with two 6's as Upminster ended on 184-0. Jenkins 112* and Schofield 56*. An excellent 18 points as the promotion dream is still alive.

Nicky Ison’s comments in 2020-
‘I honestly reckon we would have never got that final wicket, we tried every combination we could and once Mike Harrisons promising leggies didn’t work, where do you go after that. I think Tom was 13 or 14 then and played so well, no wonder he got the big money move to Brentwood. Nice to see Rob White taking the wicket of Paul Hurworth as he regularly did in those years. It turned out to be a huge victory for us and Harry and Mark batted so well together during that season, one of the best partnerships I’ve seen at Upminster in that game, absolutely ruthless’