Having lost the toss after a damp morning at Arden Field, Gish and Matt negotiated an important opening 10 overs. As the sun came out and conditions improved, Gish nicked off beautifully to first slip, bringing in Caleb to the crease. With only 9 functioning fingers , Caleb was unable to continue his outrageous scoring form, but with Matt smashing through the 40 barrier at the other end Finchley continued to press on. The skipper provided steady support against Harrow St Mary's two left arm spinners, but it was Matthew who stole the show with a classy 111. Will Leggett and The Finisher Nir Shah contributed robust cameos to push the score up to a solid score of 230-8 from 45 overs.

With a top heavy batting lineup, early wickets would be crucial in the second innings. Dave Burton provided just that, with a brilliant opening spell reducing Harrow St Mary's to 30-3 and putting Finchley firmly ahead in the game. This spell was all the more important given that Dave was the last front-line seamer standing, after Dom's side had been struck by the Finchley injury curse. Fingers crossed for a speedy recovery. Pete kindly stepped in to field, and watched on from first slip as Gish and Nir put together a miserly spell to put the game beyond the opposition's reach. Birthday boy Dan (on debut) and George then finished the game off to mark a resilient performance from the men in green. With Pete whispering sweet nothings into his ear at mid-off, George bashed away at a heavy length to take the final 5 wickets.

An important win for the 1s as they now look ahead to the beginning of timed cricket away at Osterley next week.

2s (247-4) beat Twickenham (243-8) by 6 wickets

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Some things in life are inevitable. As Benjamin Franklin wrote to Jean-Baptiste Le Roy, 'in this world nothing can be said to be certain, except death and taxes. Well, that and the Finchley 2nd XI chasing down totals.' The 2s now march to 5 wins from 5, after 5 successful run chases.

The Twickenham batters came out swinging, going at 10s for the first couple of overs, but some decisive captaincy to introduce Mikey early in the innings stemmed the flow. With some dangerous and accurate drift and spin, he returned excellent figures of 2-17 off his 9 overs. A couple of high quality catches by B and J Powe, and a well directed low full toss by Yuvi saw for their top 3, but a well compiled 96 by their number 4 and some decent hitting at the end of the innings took them up to 243 from their 45 overs. It could have been higher on an outfield that was fast and bumpy, but judicious use of chests, testicles and kneecaps in the field kept the score below 250.

The chase was clinical and dominant, for the loss of only 4 wickets. The required rate was never allowed to reach beyond a run a ball, and there was no need for late heroics like the previous weekend.

This was largely down to Dave and Benji, who hit 75 and 66 apiece. Dave's innings was built on powerful drives down the ground and mental fortitude; Benji's on sweeps, mellifluous back foot punches and chilled out sauntering between the wickets. They were helpfully supported by important 30s from Farhan, who unleashed the full power of the Kami bat though extra cover, and Yuvresh, who combined deft single stealing with a big ol' straight bomb. The old timers Munners and Jamie saw the chase home with some commanding aerial shots; there are few more intimidating sights in this world than Will Munford clearing his front leg, and this was the final sight the Twickenham bowlers saw before defeat as the ball slammed into the midwicket fence.

Who needs Paul Sinha and Anne Hegerty when you have Dave Goldsmith and Benji Powe. Perhaps the bowlers may choose to restrict a side to less than 240 sometime soon, but until then, the chase is on.

3s (91ao) lost to Stanmore (184-7) by 93 runs

Disappointing day for the 3s as they fell well short of their target.

4s got a walkover victory after Brondesbury conceded

SUNDAY - MIDDLESEX T20 COMP AT ARDEN FIELD

Game 1 - Finchley (134-5) beat Winchmore Hill (133-6) by 5 wickets

Finchley put together an authoritative display to beat Winchmore Hill in the first game of the day. Led by Dave once again, an inexperienced bowling attack did well to restrict Winchmore Hill to 133 from 18 overs. Despite some comical fielding in slippery conditions, the bowlers stuck to their plans well to give the batters every chance of bringing the game home. They did just that, with a dominant first ten overs putting the game beyond reach the opposition's reach. Rish Herath and Tom Powe were the standouts with the bat, peppering the pure gym car park and flats behind the pavilion. Both fell with the game all but won, leaving Gish and Will Munford, fresh from steering the 2s to victory the day before, to finish off the game.

Game 2 - Crouch End beat North Middlesex by 7 wickets
Game 3 - Finchley (133-9) lost to Crouch End (195-4) by 62 runs

Facing Crouch End in the 'final', this was a great opportunity for a young side to test themselves against a strong Premier league outfit. Gish continued his noble tradition of bowling a no ball on the first ball of the game, but unfortunately the Crouch End opener was less obliging than his Winchmore Hill counterpart from earlier in the day, taking the score to 11 from the one legal delivery. From then on it was a brave display from the Finchley young guns, who managed to keep Crouch End below 10 an over for the duration of the innings. Shoutout once again to Dave who continued his excellent weekend - bowling an excellent spell in the powerplay to contain the scoring rate - and to Yuvresh who bowled 4 great overs of leg spin through the middle overs.

Chasing 195 was not beyond the realms given the chases which have been completed at Arden Field this year, and Will and Rish started brilliantly with a number of strong shots finding the boundary rope. A cluster of wickets, however, put paid to Finchley's hopes of winning the game. George threw some shots back at the Crouch End attack, including a liquid six over extra cover on his way to 50. Without much support it proved an innings in vain, as Finchley fell comfortably short of their target.