Weakened Abbots Langley brushed aside

The first of the timed games was against 4th placed Abbots Langley IIIs. The skipper won the toss and chose to bowl on a damp but drying pitch and Ali Javed and Darshan Raval set about their task with their usual relish. Joe Woodard was the first victim, falling LBW to Darshan in the second over (4/0). Ali struck in the 5th over, having no. 3 Gary Hyams (3) caught behind by Zaf Basit (9/2). Darshan took the score to 2-1, bowling Joe Hoskins (1) (12/3, 8th over) and extended his lead in the 14th over, bowling Reza Khan for 9 (24/4). Ali got one back in the final over of his first spell, bowling Jibin Joy for 1 to leave the Abbot's inning in disarray at 30 for 5 from 17 overs. No. 5 Harry Khan and captain Matthew Gentry gave the innings a bit of stability until Murtuza Amin trapped Gentry (9) plumb LBW (47/6, 25th over) and Lee Crocker caught Suren Patel (1) off Dave Flavell in the next over (48/7). Another period of resistance followed until Kudzai Makopa held a lovely diving catch at Silly Mid Off to remove William Hodgins (2) (70/8). With stomach's rumbling, the opening bowlers returned and Darshan got his 4th victim, with Lee at long on taking his second catch to end the resistance of Harry Khan (25) (75/9). Ali then ended the innings with Kudzai also taking his second catch to end the innings on 76 from 41 overs.

Zaf Basit and Lee Crocker immediately tucked into the opening bowling, with the Abbot's captain Gentry struggling with the slope. Lee had clearly eaten too much tea and was avoiding running by scoring in multiples of 4 but was unlucky to play a leg side dab too early with the ball looping off the back of the bat to the keeper for 12 (26/1, 5th over). Zaf and Andrew Teague then pushed the score along towards the target until Zaf (36) gloved the ball to the keeper with the end in sight, leaving Pete Jaffe to face two balls before Andrew (19*) hit a 4 to level the scores and a wide ended the game

The opening bowlers did the hard work with Ali (11.4-3-14-3) and Darshan (11-5-12-4) bowling tightly. Change bowlers Murtuza Amin, bowling his first spell of spin, and Dave Flavell continued the squeeze and the fielding was good, with some lovely catches taken. The top 3 batsmen completed the job without any fuss to give us our 6th victory from 7 games, leaving us 18 points clear at the top of the table.

Mill Hill Village 2's 30 points, Abbots Langley 3's 2 points.

Next up London Colney 2's away