Opting to chase on a glorious sunny day at Arden Field, the 1s fell 15 runs short of their target, despite a resilient 72* from Will Leggett. After a quick start, Dom and Michael put together an excellent spell to reel in Brondesbury from 60-1 from 10 overs, to 130-4 from 30. Dave and Seb returned for good spells, and at one point it looked as though Brondesbury might be limited to a score around the 200 mark. Some strong lower order hitting, however, lifted Brondesbury late on to reach a par score of 227.

With the sun out and a good wicket to bat on, early wickets put a dent in the Finchley response. After Matt fell LBW early on, Tom and Gish rebuilt well, and after a number of deliveries flew through the covers for four, the pair were close to establishing a foothold in the game. Both fell in quick succession, however, and with Rish nicking off soon after, Finchley found themselves 50-4 in the powerplay. Aizaz came in at 6 to join Will Leggett, and fought hard to rebuild the innings. With the run rate high, the two were able to soak up some pressure and build an excellent partnership. At 120-4 Finchley were back in the game, but in the next few overs Aizaz was adjudged LBW, before Will headbutted a vicious straight drive from Seb, and had to be withdrawn to check for concussion symptoms. Seb put his foot down to keep the men in green up with the rate, and as Joel deposited one into the Pure Gym car park, the chase was firmly on. Having passed a rigorous HIA assessment, Will returned to the field after Seb was bowled, and along with Joel and Dave took Finchley within 30 runs of victory in the 42nd over. A succession of run outs, however, put paid to Finchley’s hopes of victory, as Michael was the last man to go, caught cover 15 runs short of our target.

2s (242-6) beat Brondesbury (241-9) by 4 wickets

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The second XI made it two from two in the league chasing 241 thanks in a big way to a classy little kiwi.

The day started with a surprise switch of captaincy from Walshy To Nir something that only could be dreamt up in the mind of the Neil Warnock of Middlesex Amateur Cricket, Dave Goldsmith.

Docile is a word you can not use to describe a Goldsmith team talk but one you can use when it comes to the Bron wicket. It offered little for the seamers despite Jaimin Patel taking two early wickets, before proving once again his muscles have all the reliability of a rusting 2001 Vauxhall Zafira (get well soon JP, 3-8-2).

In the end the spinners did a good job restricting Bron to 241 and a big shout out goes to Shayam on picking up two poles on his 2s league debut and Dan McGowan who despite their age and some big mean boys from Bron trying to bully them kept the closing overs of the innings relatively quiet. (Walshy also got a wicket).

Filled with Chicken Pie and Cauli Mash in 25 degree heat (6.7/10 bit heavy for the weather) the flock went about their run chase and thanks to a 133 second wicket stand between Bibily Powe (49) and Caleb, there was firm foundations for a victory.

Caleb went on to make a match defining 104 from 108 balls the highlights of which wouldn’t look out of place hung in the Louvre.

Despite evident nervous energy from some older members of the team who in club cricket have ‘seen it all before’, now affectionately known by Bron players as an ‘internet Wally’, W Munford added some impetus to the innings with 23 from 20 balls. It was only due to inconsiderate field placement that this stunning display of strokeplay was. Now with close to 40 required and the RRR at 5.5 an over, the inevitable happened and what’s that? NIR SHAH (insert Thanos Meme with NIRs head).

23 from 15 balls and aptly helped by HOOPs (16). Shah has all the swagger in a run chase of a prime Viv Richard’s and to be fair he keeps bringing the boys home.

Great Win and the boys go marching on. UTF

3s (149ao) lost to Indian Gymkhana (150-8) by 2 wickets

Morning came and the sun was blazing, a perfect day for an enticing game of cricket between Finchley and Indian Gymkhana’s 3s. After a slight delay, the home team won the toss and decided to send finchley out to bat in the scorching heat. Rohit and Ali entered the crease and were tested by a couple strong overs of tedious swing bowling. The conditions grew tougher, and Ali was the first to go. Rohit soon fell and the pitch was proving to be a test for the batters, but a fairly strong partnership between Farhan and Amir seemed to steady the ship. Boundaries were flying, things were looking seemingly pretty for Finchley, until Farhan lost his wicket and Amir went down with a hamstring injury. Finchley were in a tough position. Samay entered and stayed for a while, but wickets started to fall around him and he was undone by the return of the opening bowler. The sun continued to beam down on the boys and batting was certainly not an easy task in the heat. Unfortunately for Finchley, wickets continued to fall and they were bowled out for 149.

This seemed an easy chase for the opposition, but Finchley had other plans and their determination opened the abyss for a different ball game. Piyush and Aweis opened the bowling, and the boys were ready for a fight in the dying sunlight. The conditions were tricky, with the ball beating the batsman’s edge countless times. Finchley struggled to find a breakthrough. However, the boys were economically superb and the run rate slowly started to creep up, until an eventual breakthrough from Gagan which revived a new hope within the team. Wickets were hard to come by, but the run rate continued to increase and Indian Gymkhana were struggling to get it off the square. Overs passed and fantastic spells from Gagan, Aweis, Piyush and the skipper SOK helped to set up a nail biting finale. The opposition found themselves struggling massively and the equation looked pretty for Finchley, with 10 overs left and Indian Gymkhana needing 5 runs an over. Gagan and SOK continued to take wickets, however, in the dying embers the opposition were able to win it with 3 balls to spare.

In the end, a strong and determined effort from Finchley in the field with some excellent spells of bowling, proved to fall just short of what was needed.
We move on to next week.

4s (185 ao) lost to Crouch End (189-4) by 6 wickets

On a glorious Sunny May day, at our new home venue at Bushey, Finchley won the toss and elected to bat first against Crouch End 5s, probably the strongest side in our league. M. Melzer held the held the batting order together until out for 48, miss pulling back to the bowler. Both colts and adult players need to learn to ‘get in’ and develop an innings rather than ‘all guns balzing’ from the beginning, particularly on pitches where the pace is slow and the ball is not quite coming onto the bat. There was a useful contribution from colt Azaan Afridi on debut (32) and both S. Patel(26) and H. Fazil (39) put on a useful partnership to take us to 185 all out, 50/60 runs short of what we required to be competitive.

Despite an early break through and two wickets from H. Fazil, Crouch End batted calmly and sensibly and comfortably reached the total after 33 overs. Neewan bowled leg spin with great control (but no wickets) and newcomer Roopesh was encouraging and energetic in the field. Unfortunately, our bowlers bowled too many bad balls and need to settle in to a consistent line and length much quicker in order to apply more pressure on batsman.