Week 10 Roundup - 21/50 points

An absolute belter of a game. We lost an important toss and were inserted into the field without Joel who was at a children's piano concert. It was a flat deck and they ended up getting 269-9 dec off 64 overs. 5 wickets for Nicoll, 2 Hughes, 1 Nurse, 1 Bird. A sterling effort from the boys, decisions were against us and it was hot. A big total was always going to be very difficult to chase. Holmes (75) and Cracknell (53) put on 107 for the first wicket and set an exciting platform. A quality effort particularly by Shirls who had just kept for 64 overs. The ton partnership was followed by another, beast Fahrenheim (69) bludgeoning balls around Frognal. 211-2 needing a run a ball to get the last 50 odd. Their quick came back for a very good second spell bowling sharp and aggressively, dismissing Fahrenheim, Flowers (13) and T Nicoll (1). 229-5 and a different game, Hampstead probably favourites. Murray (5) came and went. We ended up needing 28 off 4 overs with Nurse (15*) and W Nicoll (7) at the crease. The 4 points already safe. Runs not coming easily and very tense times. We didn't get much off the first 5 balls and Hampstead were on top, however an incredible 4 byes turned it completely. 21 needed from 3 and W Nicoll out. Hughes to the crease. 16 needed off 2 became 8 from 1. 4 needed from 3 balls and Joel Hughes hits a 90 yard bomb over extra cover to win it. A quality run chase and great game. 20 points from the last 2 games, celebrated long into night. We just won the 2020 quarter final today as well. Chasing down Southgate's 103 off 9 overs. Finals day details to follow.

10 points for the Midd

With club legend Anthony Holloway, soon to be club legend Phil Victor, the Indian Prince of Camden Joey James and the ever impeccable Mikey Edwards all returning, the 3's looked a strong outfit when eventually everyone turned up to play Hampstead on Saturday. After tossing, Shep tenderly wandered back from the middle to inform us we had been inserted and called for our openers to get their protective gear on. Chambo got a seed from their opener having flat batted his compatriot for 4 and 6 consecutively in the previous over. Shep fell for 19 in the 10th over, with the score already on 50. Swashbuckling Tino was relishing batting on a ground with cut grass, racing his way to 30 in no time, and Harris and Lake both joined him hitting glorious boundaries for fun. A slight wobble saw the score reach 120-7. Then Kilburn Mafia member Garratt and Dr.Dre came together to hit 4 bombs between them to get us up 188 all out. A Phil Victor bomb being the last memorable shot of the innings.Pick of the bowlers being Off Spinner Fernando with 4-45. Beach weight fiend Harris started the innings well cleaning up their no2 and then having their no3 caught on the edge of the ring courtesy of a "verld class" grab by Joey James diving forward. A change of ends for Philly V brought about a shlurppy gully catch from Lakey which was followed by an excellent diving grab from Tino at cover off the bowling of chambo. Then, a run out, Joey James again the man, a bullet direct hit from three yards out. 54-5. Chambo's tail was up and he greeted their lidless number 7 with the sweet chin music. A man, by the looks of things, wanting to be added to the illustrious list of cricketers turned strictly winners, as he weaved and cha cha out the way of the neck high catapults Chambo was realising. He was finally dismissed for a miserable 2 when Holloway had his second catch of Chambo's bowling. A third instance of Caught Holloway Bowled Chambers occurred 3 overs later leaving the visitors reeling at 84-7. Suddenly, out of nowhere really, the number 8 started hitting bombs (of course comparative plinks to our homers), he found a partner in no.9 and together they started compiling a partnership. Chambo, with the moral figures of 9-26 was replaced by cycles of Dre, George and Max. When the 87 run partnership was eventually broken by Victor, the damage had been done. Hampstead were left with 18 to get with 2 wickets in hand and duly edged their and pushed their way to the total not losing another wicket. A close game was swayed by many variables including 3 drops and some decisions that didn't go the desired way. Next week we'll get back on the campaign trail and say wagwarn to the man dem at Harrow St.Mary's in their ends. Roll Safe.

With the Mighty 4s now having well and truly clambered aboard the winning train after a month of delays through May – indeed, June spawned three victories and a winning draw, confidence amongst the Middies was about as high as Michael Gove’s stock in the Johnson household is low. And with new players appearing out of the blue like claims of Welsh ancestry on the eve of a European semi-final, seats were at a premium on this monorail of triumph. Having stopped off ever so briefly in Richmond to allow Patil, the great mid-on slayer, to denude the home side of ten points in the most brutal of plunders last week, the Middie bus made its merry way to Waltham Forest’s premier pasture. Some say that it once turned down the chance to host an Ashes Test, and that its soil is so fertile that the grass mows itself. All we know is it’s called The Stow. In the words of Velkov Asparuh, the last man to review this beacon of natural beauty on Google, it is simply, “the perfect place.” Hear, hear Velkov. How we concur. And who better to welcome to this citadel of Burgoyne-led supremacy than Hornsey CC? Their arrival sparked the now weekly club cricket ritual of declaring that we didn’t recognize many of them from last time – always a worrying assertion. However, captain Pat delivered, winning the toss and, taking the advice of Luke to love thy neighbour as thyself, he invited Tivoli Road’s finest to have a bat. And there was an unusual look to the new ball pairing as, with the 3s riskily deciding against fielding a frontline match-reporter, Burgoyne asked his Chinaman to share the new ball with Pittman – a move heavily endorsed by this writer. The pair complemented each other with aplomb. Pittman, sporting a fairly radiant pair of spikes, built pressure from one end, whilst Friend mixed in jaffas with such a diverse collection of pies that Greggs came asking for new recipes. After much frustration caused by a variety of both avoidable and unavoidable mishaps, the breakthrough came; Friend trapping the opener in front before the new man ran past one four balls later. With Friend Snr keeping wicket and holding onto routine takes in a fashion that Joe Hart can only dream of, it was a little moment of cricketing romance as North Midd’s answer to Stavros Flatley came to the fore. Stumped Friend, bowled Friend – indeed, how sweet. More wickets would have followed soon after, but, perhaps, for the utter refusal of anyone to catch that red round thing swirling around in the air towards us. Alas, idle hands are, as they say, the devil’s playground. Dykey was the least fortunate in this regard. Friend Jr making such a meal of one chance that he could legitimately have asked for seconds. Father Friend made up for his son’s failings, however, snaffling a shnick off the unfortunate Dyke. Meanwhile, Patil of the Richmond slaying replaced Pittman and caused all sorts of problems. He finally got a deserved scalp from a thick edge behind. Two more wickets fell as our esteemed visitors pummeled their way towards a useful score. There was still time for debutant Magnus Pierre, part-time French Enlightenment philosopher and part-time Gladiator, complete with the hair of a man in preparation for this year’s Christmas panto ‘Ben Stokes meets Rapunzel’, to sneak in an over of near perfect death bowling. However, a late rally saw the Tivoli Roadians sneak up to 259-6. Ooh ah. Indeed, a fairly plentiful sum. But with the wicket still good, the outfield rapid and the legside boundary miniscule, like feeding quorn to a lion, nobody could be sure of what would happen next. Though, if Gary Balance can get picked for England then anything really is possible. Tea was consumed – The Stow adding chips to its culinary repertoire (the place can do no wrong). Things didn’t start off terribly well with the bat, the indomitable Jonny Bruce enticing captain Burgoyne to edge to slip in the first over. Patil and Pittman chugged along nicely on the winning train until Patil (26) twatted one straight at the bowler’s midriff. Friend Jr replaced him and began what would become quite the vigil. All went swimmingly as the pair put away the poor deliveries and kept out the good ones until the strength of the undiluted Ribena did for Pittman. Having survived a stumping chance, he was undone by a good one from back of a length. From here on in, it was Brigadier Block stuff. Carr got a good one, playing down the Bakerloo Line when, indeed, the ball had taken the replacement bus service to Outville. Terblanche replaced him and together with Friend, proceeded to suck the life out of both opposition and game. The runs coming slower than a Giroud run on goal, he superbly curbed his attacking instincts to complement the rather ploddier instincts of his partner. When he was dismissed by a big in-ducker from the impressive Waine, the game was almost safe. Pierre came in to confidently see proceedings to a close, with Friend (40*) facing 121 deliveries and 108 dot balls. A defensive display so competent that Gary Cahill would have gazed on in delirious confusion. In short, match drawn. We take one point. Five return to Tivoli Road. After the recent weather, it was nice to get 100 overs of cricket in. Indeed, cricket is to water what Chris Evans is to car shows – really annoying, everyone smiled when it finally went away and, ultimately, just not going to work. A good game of cricket against a really good bunch of blokes. Many teams wouldn’t have taken so kindly to our decision to chase half their total. A dogged point and vital not to lose to continue a run that has seen only one defeat in the last six. With eight games left this season and availability improving with every week, there is no reason why we can’t push for another top three finish. Friend Jr voted man of the match for his Athertonian effort, special mentions to Terblanche, Pierre, Pittman and Patil for foregoing their natural games in favour of slamming the door shut on one of the better 3s bowling attacks in the county. We go again at Eastcote next week. Get excited. Still the best 4th team in the county.

A bad toss to lose. The Midd were stuck in on a pitch so sloped that it might be suitable for welcoming a stage of the Tour de France, a deck which was also two paced, making scoring extremely difficult. Dave Shields and Charles Martland opened up in a makeshift batting lineup and did manage to see off 20 overs in steadily putting 35 on the board. Charles was typically cautious, often batting at a slower pace than Olivier Giroud through on goal. Credit to Hornsey who bowled in good areas throughout meaning the board never really ticked over with regularity. Dave was bowled for 13 just as he was finding some rhythm and the story from then on was batsmen struggling to get themselves set, before getting out. Billy Sutton top scored with 15 on 5s debut, including a lovely swiveled pull for one of only three boundaries in forty overs, but we were pegged back by their regular John Porter, who ended up with 6 fer. The nature of the pitch was such that at tea we still felt in the game defending 72, especially with a side welcoming back Uz, Joe Bangerter and James Gleadow (fantastic to see him back playing league cricket). Indeed, after Usman struck with an LBW their umpire tried, and eventually failed, to find a reason to give not out, and Richard took an excellent catch off Billy, the Midd had Hornsey 5-2 and it was looking like their top order could be picked apart more easily than Andrea Leadsom's Tory leadership campaign. Sadly, the flurry of wickets we needed proved as elusive as Beckett's Godot, as we offered a little too many short and wide ones. Billy bowled with good pace and bounce throughout, whilst Joe Bangeter claimed a wicket, caught by Alban behind the timbers, and could have had another with a tidy spell down the hill. In the end, 72 on a pitch they knew better than us proved short, but anything closer to 125 would have made things really interesting.