North Enfield Cricket Club II vs Sandridge II (H) - Saturday 31st August 2024

North Enfield Cricket Club’s 2s put in a complete all round performance at Strayfield Road on Saturday to leapfrog Sandridge in the Division 9 East table!

An unbroken opening partnership of 150 saw them claim maximum points and a 10 wicket victory, after they earlier restricted Sandridge to 146 - 6 from their 40 overs.

After losing the toss and being asked to bowl first, North Enfield got off to the best possible start when Oliver Munt bowled one of the Sandridge openers in the second over.

He continued to ask questions of the Sandridge top order alongside Thomas Munt, but they reached the 10 over mark without sustaining any further loss at 20 - 1.

Just when the partnership was starting to look threatening, the other Sandridge opener hit a crisply timed sweep shot off David Malleson straight into the hands of Thomas Munt on the boundary.

After drinks, North Enfield continued to pick up regular wickets, with Abbie Jones claiming two and a Stuart Halley run out preventing the visistors from running away from them. However, a solid sixth wicket partnership from Sandridge propelled them up past 140 and despite a last over run out allowed them to post a tricky score of 146 - 6 from their 40 overs.

North Enfield’s openers William Munt and David Brandon got off to a slow and steady start, respecting some tidy bowling from the Sandridge openers. After a cautious first 10 overs, they started to push on and managed to reach 66 - 0 at drinks, meaning that they were ahead of where Sandridge were at the same stage.

They continued to up the ante after drinks with William Munt reaching 50 and their first wicket partnership surpassing 100. With the visistors starting to get desperate, North Enfield continued to tick along and Brandon reached his own half century (51*), as the required runs total dipped down into single figures, before an outside edge from Munt (91*) sealed an emphatic victory for the hosts and kept their survival chances in their own hands going into the final league game of the season.

Elsewhere, North Enfield’s 1s made it a perfect weekend as unbeaten 50s from Kieran Jones (52*) and Tom Coughlan (63*) saw them to a seven wicket victory at Old Haberdashers, whilst on Sunday the Club XI defeated the Chairman’s XI by 15 runs in a good spirited game.