Wembley showed why they are run away leaders (and indeed winners) of this division as they demolished a pretty decent Fosters Sunday 2nd XI.

For the 3rd week running a massive score was put up against us, this time a few less than last week as Wembley (only) scored 318 all out. Easily the best figures were achieved by Shafi Babwah with 4 for 26 from 5 overs and Tony Sayers with 2 for 32 from 8. The rest of the bowling was put to the sword despite its strength in depth.

The Fosters reply got off to the worst possible start as Messrs Rollo, Wells and Sumner all departed before a run was scored. Xav (18) and Adam (19) gave the reply some respectability but no one got past 20 and only James Grant (16) and Shag (11) joined them by making double figures as the reply quickly came to an end on 104.

Spooks was proved correct in his prediction that had he avoided the trip to Wembley he could have remained top of the averages.....also batted criteria could be created for a suitable bribe.......
 

In response, up stepped last week's hero Simon Westbury to smash another 63 from less than 50 balls in an effort to keep up with the rate, in spite of the running between the wickets of Tony Whaley! Once he went going for the 4th boundary off the spinner there really wasn't much left and despite contributions of 20 from Tony and Dan Rollo the innings subsided. The skipper capped off his day with a fine duck.
 

A fantastic run chase on the lower pitch as the same time as the 1s XI were defeating Holtwhites first XI in the Becker Plate. The usual road of a pitch saw Holtwhites chalk up an impressive total of 279 for 6 which must have looked fairly impregnable at tea time.

In response though Fosters gave it a go from the off with Adam Pigden scoring 37 and Mark Viner 63 to keep the side up with the rate. This brought in spooks who, much to the surprise of those present, started smacking the ball around (as well as running out his partners). He ended up on 63 not out, hitting the winning runs in a remarkable one wicket victory in the final over.

(Also see the end of Declan's match report on the Becker Plate match)

In response we saw another good knock from Dan Rollo (35) and a welcome return to runs from Tony Whaley (30), with lots of useful contributions before skipper Hale completed a good weekend by scoring 31 not out and securing a 4 wicket victory.

11 against 11 at last but not a good result for the inexperienced Fosters side. Winchmore Hill racked up 260 off of their 45 overs with only Gregs really stemming the flow taking 1 for 31 off of his 10 overs. Sam Barker also returned excellent figures in the circumstances - 2 for 50 off of 10 overs as both he and Chris Nickolls (1 for 58 from 9) got a chance of a decent spell of bowling after a long fielding stint the day before.

In response the Fosters innings fell apart - Neil Hale top scoring with just 10 - as no one had an answer to the Winchmore Hill bowling attack.

Hopefully this is not a sign of things to come from this league, as following on from playing 7 men, 2 ladies and another player who happened to be passing last week, Fosters this week took on the 9 men of Bessborough, whose total of 147 always looked rather light. Wellsy followed up last weeks miserly spell with 2 for 26 off of his 10 overs and youngsters O'Connor and Sam Barker both chipped in with 2 wickets apiece before Josh Kirk came on to take a couple of cheap wickets late on.

In response it was a welcome return to the side and to form from Dan Rollo who amassed an excellent 74 not out sharing in excellent stands with Morgan Edwards (32) and Adam Pigden (30) and seeing the team home comfortably.

Ultimately a disappointing result after AP had been restricted to just 140 thanks to 3 wickets each for Matt Shore and Josh Kirk, following an excellent opening spell from Wellsy (just 11 runs off his 10 overs) and Richard Blaby.

In reply Shag and Simple Simon took the score to 59 before a collapse aided by APs Aussie (7 for 32!) saw Fosters all out for 127.

Report below from the AP Newsletter

2^nd X1 (140) vs Cockfosters (127)                 WON

An amazing win. The 7 men of the 2s (at the time - please read on) looked doomed at the beginning of the game. 2 late cry-offs at late notice left us even more depleted. But our leader Dave `Dadu' Kassam won the toss and we batted. We thought it would be better to bat & get skittled out rather than chase leather for 45 overs (or so we thought). Joe Parman & Dadu strode to the wicket. They held out pretty well for 10 overs against good bowling, but Dadu couldn't resist the urge and holed out (The old rascal! – Ed.). Randolph Reid then came in, was circumspect at first but gradually found his feet, and started to pepper the boundary. Joe went for a well made 18, and Reid went into his shell a little more. Good news was happening off the field: 2 ladies from Carole's all conquering AP ladies's team were joining us to play & Mark Campbell had come/observed and decided to play for us as well. Marvellous!!! Jeremy Kuper played well & stuck with Randers until he was dismissed on 11 and another couple of wickets went as well. But Marky came out and stuck with Reid and put on over 50 before Randers was dismissed (triggered by Dadu so the ladies could have a bat) for a excellent 60 (including 8x4s). Campbell carried on and hit a massive 6 over long on, before he went for a valuable 29, which will do his confidence no harm. We were dismissed just before our 45 overs were up.

Stephanie took the gloves and we were ready for action in the field. Amit Bose bowled well without too much luck, but the Cockfoster's opener was crunching the ball to the boundary and they were 50 without loss after 9 overs. Enter Mark Campbell the spinner; he got the hard hitting opener out, then got their No. 3 with a ball that turned about a foot (yes you did read that correctly) and hit the leg stump with the poor fellow shouldering arms. Marky went on to cut through Cockfoster's batting like a knife through butter (sorry old cliché), getting prodigous turn & bounce. He also took an excellent caught & bowled offered by the oppo skipper. Dadu got in on the act with 3 wickets. And Cockfosters were 9 down, when the young wicketkeeper & his father were the last pair. The young chap nearly got stumped twice as Dadu weaved his magic, a few fatherly words from well ... his father was given. But alas the youngster could contain himself no longer, and he was bowled by Dadu, triggering great celebration by us. It's amazing what you can achieve when you pull together. Mark Campbell ?? Well he had figures of 7/32 from 10 overs (Tazza are you seeing this ??). I think the full locker award could be going down Kiwi Way.

The Cockfoster's skipper was a sad forlorn figure. But they were a good bunch.

P.S Special mention for the wicketkeeping of Stephanie, she kept really well. She even took a ball from Marky flush in the face, but refused to go off and get treatment. She certainly keeps better than I do on a hot day. She also batted well.

There's only one winning Dadu, there's only one winning Dadu..........