It was with some trepidation that skipper Sohail took a strong looking 4th XI for a top-of-the-table clash against Northwood Town. Neil had already fired us more stats that Andy Zaltzman on TMS and according to what he could find, they were the best new-ball bowling attack in the league. So despite winning the toss on a hot afternoon, Hailey put Town into bat to 'see what they could manage with the bat'. The answer was rather negative as 20 of the first 23 runs came as extras and the batsmen seemed reluctant to put bat to ball. It was becoming clearer why, as the same ball would sometimes leap and sometimes scuttle and it was hard to go across the line to anything near the stumps.

Anwar bowled 5 overs for 5 runs, and it was only when the slightly slower swinging deliveries of Pras started that the batters felt it was time to go large. Sadly for them, this meant a steady stream of outgoing and incoming batters as Pras took 4-29 that killed off the top order. Worse was the come for promotion hopefuls Town as the lower order crumbledwith 4 ducks and just 13 runs between 7 of them. Had it not been for skipper Ganesh this would have been a rout, however his stay at the crease was terminated by a wonder catch by Oli at mid-wicket. Though Ganesh was as reluctant to leave the crease as England are to leave the Euros, he had to go. 94 the total. Sensible heads were now called for.

Paul (9) and Vishal (19) set about seeing off those fearsome opening bowlers and did so capably. They were indeed deadly on their own track, but waiting for a bad ball paid dividends. At drinks Ricky were 57/3 and it was most enjoyable to watch a wonderful cameo from Ollie as he would hit a superb boundary every over to keep the runs flowing. Though he got out on 31, the job was finished with just 10 required and Aman and Keshav saw the game to a conclusion.

Ricky are now well clear at the top of the table and are unbeaten on the pitch this season, at the half-way stage. Sohail's only challenge is having to rotate the squad as there are twice as many players as places and a team that is top of the table has nobody who should be dropped! Good luck skip!