North Midd continue their run by beating South Hampstead

At the Stow on a wonderful day for cricket in the June sunshine, a seemingly less-than-confident South Hampstead skipper won the toss and chose to bat on a rugged looking E17 pitch. This had been the third time we had lost the toss and the opposition had chosen to bat. Had someone been reading our game-plan? Whatever it was, we weren’t arguing, and immediately we were on the attack. Opening up, Georgie bowled with a lot of heat, and in the first over had their opener nicking behind to Dave, then refusing to walk, forcing his teammate umpire to give the nod and finally send him on the way. At the other end, Bootsy’s first ball, had the other opener skying a catch to square leg. This was well taken by Dykie and South Hampstead were two down for 1 run after seven balls. Georgie’s seven over spell was full of pace and aggression and picked up two more before being replaced. Pistol (2/28 off 6) came on and in his first over had a wicket, caught by Sammy at slip. Their big-hitting middle order batsman then smashed one to Gaurav at mid wicket who took a good catch, but the batsman refused to walk, saying it was a bump ball. He needed the oppo skipper as umpire to walk down and tell him to go. Dave took a good diving catch to give Bootsy (2/33 off 10) his second before Sammy, on debut for the 4s, came on bowled their lefty in his first over, and complete a nice spell of quick, tight bowling (1/17 from 6). Dykie bowled a few tight overs before Georgie (5/30 from 9.2 overs) came back on to clean up the tail and complete his 5-fer to leave South Hampstead all out for 119 in 35.2 overs.

With tea not ready, we turned straight around and assembled for the second innings. After not seeing Rich Verity and Guarav together for a few weeks, it was immediately back to business, with G-Man hammering the oppo bowlers and Richard providing an excellent foil at the other end. Richard fell though for 16 after a 46 run opening partnership, to bring Marc to the crease. Guarav quickly got his 50 then immediately tried to smash every ball for six before being dismissed for 55 from 60 balls. The match was finished off rapidly by Marc (27* from 32) and Yohan (16* from 8).

After a satisfying post-win tea and few Tyskies we heard that Hornsey had blocked out against Acton, which meant that the undefeated 4s were on the outright top of the table. Go the Midd!