On a hot Saturday in June, which almost resembled summer, it was imperative that Captain Nav won the toss and batted first in the home match vs Cockfosters. It is what the team were crying out for – and he put his poor tossing form behind him and duly won and sent glee through the team.

A new opening partnership of Kappa and the returning JB came in for the crippled Jimmy and the broken fingered Pricey. Two left handers opening in the first team – resembling the golden era of English cricket of Tres and Straussy. The golden era was not replicated for very long however as Kappa received a good nut early on and walked back to the pavilion with just 5 to his name.

Scutty in at 3 along with JB looked to counter a hostile spell from Cockfosters opening bowler Tony Sayers. JB in particular was bearing the brunt of the short balls and took a couple of blows to the body, don’t worry JB – the ladies love battle wounds! When looking to be through the tough part of this encounter, JB holed out to deep point when trying an upper cut. Gomes joined Scutt and between them, despite some hairy moments, saw out the rest of Sayers spell with relative ease. After having done the hard work, Scutt was undone by a ball which turned prodigiously from opposing captain Sam Barker, and had him plumb LBW after a very well-crafted 28.

Gomes was standing strong at the other end as Barker began to weave his magic as he removed both Pablo and Captain Nav quickly and then Buzzer fell first ball at the other end leaving the home team, in wonderful batting conditions 90-6 – an improvement on last week, but certainly not a strong position.

Gomes received a couple of lives early on, but then in partnership with Holland began a counter attack which saw the ball travel to the boundary frequently as they both played the spin of Barker well, and the rotating bowlers from the other end. It was only when Hutton produced a ball to bounce slightly more than the previous ones, that Holland was caught trying to pull it, and top edged to point having made 42.

The position was beginning to look stronger at 170-7, but then Gomes moved up the gears and was brutal to a returning Sayers pulling him for 6 over long on, and soon moved through the 80’s and comfortably to his 100 in 3 balls going 6,4,6. It was a quite stunning knock (his first at home since his transfer back from Totteridge), and the tail of Zinni, Dolly and Saqi provided solid support as Gomes saw us to a total of 224 off our 53 overs.

The talk at tea was to set high standards in the field and hit a fast start, and that is exactly what Busby managed as saw off both openers, one caught at mid-off, and then Barker removed with a wonderful ball which straightened up the slope and knocked the off stump back beautifully.

Saqi on his return to the team removed the number 3 with a wonderful catch from Captain Nav in a great opening spell. Before Gomes, fresh from his batting heroics removed the dangerous numbers 4 and 5. Number 5 was subject to a great catch from Pablo moving over his shoulder and on the run!

At this point Cockfosters began to play out for the draw and it was down to the spinners to weave their magic and begin to create chances on a pitch which was playing very true. First Dolly got one to straighten slightly for a successful LBW appeal, before Captain Nav got one to turn beautifully through the gate and then won a LBW decision which saw OE’s just two wickets from victory.

Stubborn resistance for the ninth wicket was undone by Zinni with his maiden first XI wicket, accompanied by a great catch from Busby and then a mix up from the batsman, typical of the tail meant Dolly was able to run out their number 11 and deliver the 30 points to OE’s.

A great result following last week’s loss to Berkhamsted, and the boys well and truly out played the opposition in all areas.

Next week we travel to Allenburys and County Hall looking to back up this great win.