Here are the details of the Week 9 matches - once again the images are courtesy of Conrad Williams - the cover pic is of Ethan Bamber celebrating one of his 3 wickets -

1st XI vs Teddington (h) - NMCC win by 31 runs
NMCC 209 all out (57) v Teddington 178 all out (50.4) - Hassan Khan 57, Ethan Bamber 3-33, Alex McQueen 3 for 41; Jem Warner 3 for 52 and George Garrett 1 for 22

Scorecard - https://northmid.play-cricket.com/website/results/5081186

Report from Henry Howeld

“Game week nine always marks a serene moment in the calendar. The English sun nears its apex, the whites are donned for Wimbledon, and the Lobsters emerge from their Crouch End crevice as a complete Nephropidae family unit – ready to cheer on The Midd whenever required. This week also marks the halfway point of the season. Once we had played host to Teddybears (who embody the strawberries and cream spirit of Wimbledon more than any other team we play against) we would've played every team once. It was a big one – first plays second, lordy plays very lordy. We were all quite excited.
On the question of the 'all', the comings and goings of players in and out of the North Midd XI is less like the hard revolving door of Kirkland and Ellis, but more akin to a serendipitous game of ring-around-the-rosie. Vanderspar removed himself from the side for July is his month of leisure. Tunkers was tunking elsewhere, and Joe Cracknell and Max Harris were dropped after their distinctly average performances the previous week. So, the 'all' this week was: Macqueen, Howeld, Bamber, Moran, Parslow, Khan, O'Sullivan, Heavypiece, Garrett, Jones, Jem.
Parslow won the toss and opted to bat first because 12 points is better than 10. Macqueen and Howeld came out to open. For a while, things were quite calm. Queenie in particular was assured and solid, mixing radio with the occasional ga-ga at one through the covers. The score reached 30 off seven overs before Howeld decided the peace needed to be broken – he charged the opening bowler and spliced a length ball to midwicket, departing for seven. A few overs later, Bamber's brisk start was halted by his own shoulder. Stupidly he let the ball hit it and was given out caught behind, also for seven. 50 for 2.
Moran joined Queenie, and together they briefly prospered. They made things look quite easy for a bit. Moran cut hard, whilst Queenie biffed nicely. Sadly, this stage of the game came to end when Queenie chipped one onto the green, because there was a fielder on the green. He had made 37 and was left with two hours to deconstruct the internal force that had moved him to chip rather than biff. This was made harder by the fact that our sports psychologist (trained under the watchful eye of sensei Cowdrey) Hassan Khan, was out in the middle scoring runs again.
Skipper Parslow had come and gone but Khan and O'Sullivan joined Aussie forces to dig us out of a hole. Their individual styles of rescue digging were antithetical. Khan's wrists are liquid, lubey if you will. He gently encouraged the ball into gaps, turning his bat in time to the sharply spinning deliveries produced by Nazir. O'Sullivan on the other hand plays with stormy wrists, breaking them across the ball like waves across a ship's stern. He powerfully flayed a few square of the wicket, which inspired Hass to get in on the act – he played a charging sweep for six which was probably the most bogan thing he's ever done at the Midd. Very impressed. Score got to 150 for 6.
Sadly, Big Dave was removed for 18 courtesy of Jhunjhunwala at slip, and he was replaced by Heavy Dave. Sadly for Heavy, Big had selfishly used up all the Daves' runs for the day, so he had to leave the crease without scoring. GG then came in and, sensing what was missing from the Middie innings: bombs. He hit a couple nice ones down the ground. They were the kind of bombs that really annoy spinners- short and flat but still six. Anyway, he and Hass continued to annoy Teddington, till they both got out. Hass for a massive 57, George for a lovely 20.
The innings wasn't over yet though – Jones and Jem also decided to get on Teddington's nerves. They nudged and nurdled an extremely significant 20 run partnership, which was only broken by the obligatory Warner run out. The Midd 209 all out off 57.
After a really lovely link-armed huddle, GG senior and GG junior (Bamber) got us going with the new nut. Here is GG in action -

GG immediately hit Ludlow on the pads for an out, whilst Bamber was too good for Daneel at the other end for five overs, till Parslow unwillingly hung onto one at first slip to remove him entirely. This brought Jhunjhunwala to the crease... but Eth sent him straight back again next ball as he produced a seed that the former IPL batter could only shnick to Howeld behind the sticks. We were very pleased.
The very impressive Evans and the former Oxford University batter Williams (whose great work in hitting Charlie Yorke-Starkey for 34 off an over in the 2s last year was undone by his full CUCC stash n lid) built a partnership of 60 despite some testing bowling from Jones and MacQueen. At tea, Teddington were the happier of the two sides.
After tea things began to happen for the fellas. Firstly, Dave literally ate a hard sweep from Teddington's in batsman at short leg. Tough chance but a superhero would have got it. It was a Jem's introduction into the attack brought about two wickets in two balls. Williams unsuccessfully swept a Yorker, and Naylor (who had been brought into the ones at the last minute) was undone first nut by a lovely Jem googly. Action shot of Jem -

After these breakthroughs the game ebbed and flowed. With Evans still there, the odds were finely poised. A couple partnerships were built, but big bad wolf Macqueen blew them down. And then, the Middies went foot on throat. Evans didn't quite get under a quicker fizzing leggie from Jem, and was fantastically caught by Moran running back. It was a game-winning moment, only slightly marred by Moran's initial "oh no" when he had realised he was required to run to affect the dismissal. Next, Bamber shnicked off the Teddington skipper. Finally, Queenie put an end to proceedings by floating one up above Nazir's eyeline. The No. 10 couldn't resist and was duly caught at mid-on by Jones – a first NMCC grab for him took us to top of the MCCL. The winning catch seemingly hung in the air for an age -

A great team performance from the fellas. A few guys stood up with the bat and the tail wagged around them, and all our bowlers were bang on the money. Lovely, lovely scenes"...including ....

and

2nd XI vs Teddington (a) - NMCC lose by 49 runs
Teddington 178 (48.4) v NMCC 129 (38.4) - Elliot Lowe 4-54, Alex McDonald 40
Scorecard - https://northmid.play-cricket.com/website/results/5081841

3rd XI vs Teddington (a) - NMCC lose by 43 runs
Teddington 234-7 (46) v NMCC 191 (37.4) - Andre Mishra 2-54, Will Cracknell 48*, Nick Friend 47
Scorecard - https://northmid.play-cricket.com/website/results/5082348

4th XI vs Acton (h) - NMCC winning draw
NMCC 245-6 (50) v Acton 170-8 (42) - Rory Walter 113*, Tom Greenhalgh 5-47
Scorecard - https://northmid.play-cricket.com/website/results/5082435

5th XI vs Stoke Newington (a) - NMCC win by eight wickets
Stoke Newington 199 (29.5) v NMCC 200-2 (29.2) - Alex Thomasa 3-37, Ben Musikant 50, Roland Turnill 50
Scorecard -
https://northmid.play-cricket.com/website/results/5470056

MDL
Sunday saw our unbeaten MDL side travel across to North London who soundly beat us by 8 wickets.

Scorecard - https://northmid.play-cricket.com/website/results/4984916