Wanstead captain Arfan Akram feels his side are now starting to reach the high standards they set themselves – following an impressive win against South Woodford last Saturday.

And the timing could prove vital as Wanstead continue to fight on three fronts in a big few days for the Overton Drive outfit.

Firstly they entertain Woodford Wells in a Dukes Twenty20 group game tonight (Thursday), before entertaining Chelmsford in league action on Saturday.

Then they continue their defence of the Conference Cup against Ealing on Sunday.

“It’s a big weekend for us and we can’t afford to take any of them lightly,” said Akram.

“If we can get off to a good start against Woodford Wells it will give us the confidence going into the other two games.

“Chelmsford on Saturday will be tough and although they have got off to a poor start we can’t afford to let our standards slip.

“We have started to find our form and now it is important to make sure we can keep it up.

“The game against Ealing is massive, and I’m sure they’ll be up for a bit of revenge after we beat them last year on the way to winning it.

“Former Middlesex bowler Chris Peploe is always a danger, but it would be foolish to just concentrate on him as they have a good one-11.”

Wanstead picked up their third league win of the season at the weekend with a 92-run victory over South Woodford.

Akram was pleased with the manner of victory after going past the 300 mark, and then skittling the opposition out for just 210.

“So early on in the season it is just about accumulating the points (in the league),” he added.

“The performance against South Woodford all round was great.

“My brother Adnam was back to his best with 83 with the bat, as well as another excellent contribution from Jonathan Das with 50.

“We knew they didn’t really have a fifth bowler and we targeted that.

“The two they opted to use went for over 100, whilst we respected and made sure we worked the other four bowlers around.

“With the ball Mo Fayyaz Khan was excellent before Rehan Hassan came into the attack and finished them off superbly.”