Tom Nicoll, averaging 50 at an aggressive strike rate of a touch over 100 would be the last person you would want to see coming in at 7, if you’ve managed to get through the top 6.

- Nick Brown

Nick Brown, the Secretary of the Middlesex County Cricket League, has just published his teams of the Premier Divisions 2018 Team of the Season. The Midd's Luke Hollman and Tommy Nic feature in both the Timed Cricket and Overs Cricket teams. Joel Hughes and Joe Cracknell make the Overs Cricket team.

Here is Nick's article in full -

"Here are my choices for the Teams of the Season, no Overseas Players and no Contracted Players, I haven’t picked a Captain, there are plenty of options.

Timed Cricket

1. Mubasher Hassan (Hampstead)
2. Nick Pryde (Teddington)
3. Luke Hollman (North Middlesex)
4. Ben Compton (Richmond)
5. Adam London (Richmond)
6. Abishek Jhunjhunwala (Richmond)
7. Tom Nicoll ((North Middlesex)
8. Rhys Davies (WK)(Twickenham)
9. Alistair Pollock (Teddington)
10. David Burton (Richmond)
11. Will Roberts (Hampstead)

Overs Cricket

1. Mubasher Hassan (Hampstead)
2. Chad Barrett (Ealing)
3. Luke Hollman (North Middlesex)
4. Ben Compton (Richmond)
5. Adam London (Richmond)
6. Abishek Jhunjhunwala (Richmond)
7. Tom Nicoll (North Middlesex)
8. Joe Cracknell (WK) (North Middlesex)
9. Ashley Siverajah (Ealing)
10. David Burton (Richmond)
11. Joel Hughes (North Middlesex)

The two highest run scorers in the league, also open the batting, so in the longer form of the game Pryde and Hassan were the obvious picks, they are followed by Hollman, Compton, London, Jhunjhunwala and Tom Nicoll.

The hard hitting Hollman averaged 42 and offers plenty with the ball having collected 36 wickets also, Compton had the top average in the League (57.78), London averaged 47 and will contribute with the ball and Jhunjhunwala whilst only averaging 35 with the bat, had a high score of 140 and is the off spin option for the team. Tom Nicoll, averaging 50 at an aggressive strike rate of a touch over 100 would be the last person you would want to see coming in at 7, if you’ve managed to get through the top 6. Rhys Davies is a very reliable gloveman and would be a welcome partner for any of the top 7. The seam bowling would be in the hands of Burton, Pollock and Roberts; Burton and Pollock both took 39 wickets and were the leading seam bowling wicket takers and Will Roberts with 29 wickets and a very impressive strike rate of 20.48, would make up a very impressive bowling attack.

A few of changes for the limited overs format, Chad Barrett will replace Pryde at the top of the order, Chad scored just under 500 league runs at a strike rate of 85 and his seam bowling at an economy rate of 3.11 with 27 wickets gets him into the team. The aggressive hitting Joe Cracknell as evidenced by a 117 strike rate replaces Davies with the gloves and as we have brought Barrett into the team, a seamer is sacrificed and Ashley Siverajah comes into the team, he took 36 wickets at an economy rate of 3.56. The final change sees the aggressive wicket taking Will Roberts, replaced by Joel Hughes whose miserly 3.05 economy rate makes him a perfect opening bowling in this format.

Highgate supporters will cross me off the Christmas card list for not finding a place for Uzair Amjaid in either team, with 45 wickets and an economy rate of 3.77, but there was a wealth of spin options and in the limited overs format Ashley got the nod on the grounds of the slightly better economy rate and being a left arm variation.

Nick Brown"