It's safe to say the 3rd XI are the shining light of the club at the moment. A tight win at Enfield early in June was followed by a well-deserved rest on the 15th. A trip to Cockfosters was then in store with Andy Fiztpatrick delving deep into his contact book to pull together 10 players for the game.
Despite being one short, Andy sensed an opportunity and inserted Cockfosters. This paid off with opening bowlers Gurpal 'Garry' Singh and Oscar Squiers, another promising seamer from the colts, removing the Cockfosters openers and number 5 early on to leave the home side 10-3.
A solid partnership followed for Cockfosters, but golden arm Andy Fitzpatrick broke the partnership before Oscar picked up his 2nd - finishing was excellent figures of 2-13 from 8 overs. Andy ran through the middle order on his was to 4-25 and 8 wickets in two matches. Ridhuan Zahar and Jason Hemington, Andy's late call-ups, both grabbed wickets of the tail to bowl Cockfosters out for 128.
In reply, it was a measured and solid batting display with the top 6 all reaching double figures. Experienced openers Pete Tatakis and Mike Cox set the tone, with Pete ending his league run drought to make 12 and Mike breaing the back of the chase with his 37. Father and son Jason and Finely Hemington took things on from there, Jason making 16 and Finley a very mature 21 not out to see the team home - a player whose batting is coming on leaps and bounds in line with another excellent keeping display.
Garry and Oscar got 18 and 14 respectively and the total was eventually chased down with 4 wickets and 7 overs to spare.