The Mighty 4s crash land against Hornsey

On an overcast and threatening looking day at the Stow, the Mighty 4s put in a very un-4s like display and lost by ten wickets to our local rivals Hornsey. After being put in by the Hornsey skipper, Gaurav and Rich made their usual start, before Richard (6 from 27) tried to hit out, giving a catch to mid-wicket. One of three debutants, Griff, the younger, batted sensibly, but fell for 7 off 30 balls. Then came the first of the returning North Midd Club Legends and second 4s debutant, Engie (4 from 4), who came down the pitch to the spinner and smacked a lovely ball over mid wicket, before trying to repeat the dose next ball, but missing completely, being easily stumped by the keeper.

With the free scoring Gaurav at the crease batting with Pistol, who was looking to bash anything full and straight, the Mighty 4s started looking comfortable, but in the space of two balls lost Gaurav (47 from 52), caught trying to nudge a single off the last ball of the over rather than belt it through mid-wicket and Pistol (14 from 11 balls), who made the cardinal sin of trying to block one rather than smash it.

The second returning North Midd Club Legend and last 4s debutant, Griff, the elder, then brought some solidity to the batting as both Alex and Dave received dubious LBW decisions for ducks (this was from our own umpire, Engie!). Dykie (11 from 16) and Bootsy (10 from 21) then hit some memorable boundaries, including a massive homer over mid-wicket by Dykie, but both fell to leave Griff undefeated on 10 and the Mighty 4s a long way short of par on 116.

In response, the North Midd bowlers toiled hard, but great knocks from Waine and Allen, who both brought up their half centuries, took the game away from the Midd to complete a comfortable Hornsey victory by ten wickets, the first ever occurrence of this in 4s history. A remarkable thing to note was that Hornsey not only needed to use two batmen, but they had also only used two bowlers to knock over the 4s batting order.

The late afternoon thunderstorms affected the 2nd vs 3rd place match at Barnes, leaving Acton with a winning draw and the Mighty 4s still 5 points in the clear at the top of the table.