Cockfosters 174 for 6 beat Hertford II 158 all out by 16 runs

Team: A Gregory (Capt), A Levy (wk), I Cooper, W Dar, C Xavier, C Edwards, K Brady, S Butt, T Dar, P Moruzzi, R Hill,

Another glorious April day and despite winning the toss, the Hertford skipper decided to field first in this 40 over a side game.

Xav and new signing Waseem Dar were scheduled to open the batting, but with the opposition ready, Waseem was still changing and Xav was smoking – therefore Anthony and Ian were sent in to open instead. The innings looked in a real crisis at 44 for 4 – Anthony went without troubling the scorers, Ian was caught off what should have been a no ball, Waseem looked classy but got caught off a slower delivery and Xav was well caught at long on for 22 when he mistimed a lofted on drive.

This brought Kevin and Shag together and they looked good in putting 40 runs together in quick time before Kevin got himself caught for 22. This brought in Waseem’s brother Tuffail, who is meant to be a bowler but can clearly bat a bit as shown by the partnership of over 70 with Shag. He finally fell in the final over of the innings for 29 and Shag finished with an excellently made 54 not out. Our final debutant Sakib Butt made 2 not out but failed in his instruction to run Shag out!

In reply Tuffail showed that he really is a bowler with an opening spell of accurate fast medium bowling that eventually brought the reward of 2 victims. He ended up with match figures of 3 for 43 from 15 overs and will clearly be a fixture in either the first or second team this season. At the other end Roy bowled a selection of deliveries and a slower straight one was good enough to account for one of the openers. Roy then provided the best fielding moment with a stunning catch off of Cheesy’s opening long hop.

Xav, with an evening engagement awaiting, was disappointed to see the game going to its full schedule and was somewhat more disappointed to see that his mobile phone reception seemed to vary depending on whether he was fielding at slip or in the covers.

Gregs put in his usual tidy spell which yielded 2 wickets for 26 runs and the innings subsided thanks to 3 run outs, including 2 from Cheesy and one off his own bowling from Tuffail. A hard working win and good practice for the league games to come next week.

Epping CC 129 v Cockfosters 2^nd XI 130 for 4 - Chris Knight

Cockfosters 2^nd XI ran out comfortably winners by 6 wickets of this friendly played in the leafy surrounds of the lovely Essex countryside. It was a great day that started off very quietly but as the day unfolded there were certainly many talking points and some very interesting characters in the opposition.

Inspection of the wicket before the toss meant there were only two options for our captain to consider. Win the toss and either bowl first or ask the opposition to have a bat. Luckily for Marcus (our very astute captain of the day) and the rest of the Cockfosters team we managed to win the toss. There was much conjecture at the toss as it appeared from the pavilion that the coin had not landed flat on the surface and there was some concern trying to decide whether it was heads of tails. This surface was not going to bode well for any batsman.

As play begun and Cockfosters were all in position to take advantage of this surface, came the strange realisation that Epping were going to open bat with all 11 players. Our captain had forgotten to inform us of the one minute silence in memory of a Epping Life member who had passed away recently.

With ball in hand our opening bowlers of Tony Sayers & Dean Johnson started tearing into their task and within 2 overs had reduced the home team to 12-2. You always associate the number 4 batsman as the class act of any team and as the Epping number 4 took strike everybody was holding their breath. In a batting style that would have been very comfortable on any baseball ground in American he set about tearing our attack apart. This approach started paying dividends and in a blink of an eyelid we were clapping him for his fifty and wondering how that happened.

12-2 had very quickly become 89-2 and it was time for spin. On came Ravi (informing everybody before the game of his blood line with Mr Solanki ex England cricketer) so you could imagine the excitement amongst his team mates. Well before long he didn’t disappoint as our baseballer finally struck out. From here the Epping middle order fell apart as our South African import Roy Hill ripped into them with some fine bowling, finally finishing with excellent figures of 4-24 off 6 overs as the opposition were unable to deal with the pace and especially the run up which appeared to get longer with each wicket.

The highlight of the afternoon was the arrival at the crease of Jack Simmonds at 9 (nicknamed Mr Angry) as he proceeded to scream out instructions at every ball he faced.  There was much laughter in the field as some fieldsmen went searching for earphones to block out the noise. It was left to Tom Hutton to rap the innings up with 3 wickets with his gentle turners which were too much for the lower order. Epping CC all out for 129 and a very happy Cockfosters headed back to the pavilion for tea.

Our openers were already filling up their plates with the food when their captain informed them we would have 10 minutes play before tea. Chris Knight batting at four decided we needed a night watchmen padded up as he wanted to be protected to enable to get some food before he batted.

There was much amusement in the pavilion as Marcus and Tom headed out in pursuit of 130 to win this game. The break for tea couldn’t come quick enough for Epping as Tom started very positively and after 3 overs had got the score up to 30 without loss. The carnage continued after tea as again Tom smashed boundary after boundary. In between Marcus managed to get himself out as his bat got stuck behind his pad as he attempted to play forward. Josh had no alternative but to fire him.

After some terrible bowling from the opening pair Epping finally found a very quick young bowler who managed to knock over all the stumps of our young under 15 captain. After declaring that helmets and thigh pads were for wimps, our brave kiwi import was seen scurrying into the pavilion looking for the said attire. 62-2 became 120-2 in a blink of an eyelid as Tom was still smashing fours at will and the Epping wicket keeper was unable to stop most deliveries from their new fast bowler. Mr Extras had quietly moved along nicely to 40 without looking troubled.

Our kiwi import after reaching 2^nd top score with 7 was given out LBW as the finger went up by the local umpire before the appeal had even begun (he would say that - ed). Tom after making a brilliant 75 was finally stumped as the scores were level. It was left to Mr Extras to finish the game off as another wide delivery fielded by the 1^st slip brought proceedings to an end.

A comfortable victory to Cockfosters and a very memorable and enjoyable day out was had by all. The day belonged to Tom who will surely be seen at a higher level next week after a brilliant display.