If Lutonian's ground bore a resemblance to that of a miniature Coliseum, then fittingly the action on the field was as brutal as the festivities you'd have witnessed in Ancient Rome.

Jack Randall, as he so often has this season, wielded his bat like a gladiator for a rapid unbeaten 80, feeding various bowlers to the lions as Northchurch secured a nine-wicket win.

It was a crushing display which at the end, would have had members of the crowd turning their thumbs as Lutonian's were consigned to a ninth defeat in 15 matches.

For Northchurch, their promotion bid rolls on - and had it actually played out in Rome all those years ago, they would surely have earned the approval of Julius Caesar.

Instead, they had to make do with the glowing plaudits of their own leader, Harry Chapman, who was undoubtedly pleased with another 2s win.

As has been customary this season Northchurch sent their opponents into bat, and after a frustrating start with Shamas Khan and Abdul Malik looking to score positively, the away side finally found the first wicket in the 13th over.

Randall and Ben Pyne had plugged away from either end, and after Joel James had dropped a straight forward chance at backward point, moved brilliantly to his left a few overs later to take a brilliant catch to make up for it.

Randall was the bowler, as his rather poor ball outside off was slashed into the hands of James by Khan for just nine.

A change of bowling then saw the back of the other opener as David Vila picked up his sole wicket of the afternoon, bowling Malik for 27.

A third wicket was soon to fall, with Harry Bennie trapping Muhammad Ghafar on the crease to dismiss him LBW for one.

The fourth wicket pair of skipper Siraj Nasir and the experienced Asif Khan went about rebuilding the Lutonian's innings. Nasir was able to carve two boundaries from Matt Dawson's first over, whilst Khan also took the opportunity to hit Chapman back over his head for a boundary too.

Both bowlers were to bowl ten overs straight through, and it wasn't long before Chapman earned his reward, claiming Siraj, LBW for 32, for his first of four victims on the day.

Quick wickets fell for Lutonian's who then lost their best hope of getting a competitive total. Khan looked to quicken the scoring, and in doing so picked out Jack Fantham in the deep who took an excellent catch to remove the home side's danger man.

After that little resistance was offered. Chapman had Uzair Shafiq caught by Dawson at square leg before his final wicket saw Sadeel Ali bowled for three.

The Lutonian batsman weren't sensible with their approach, swinging across the line to almost every ball, and as a result Dawson claimed two wickets for a solid spell in his final over.

He first bowled Mubeen Ali for 12 with a slower ball and then clipped the off stump of Mehar two balls later.

The final wicket was claimed as Bennie returned to the attack. With the first ball of his second spell he bowled Abdulah Zameer for a duck as Lutonian's had to settle for a score of 127 from 44.1 overs.

Off the back of his resilient 46 last weekend, Fantham again opened the batting with Randall and Northchurch's chase got off to the best possible start with the two of them at the crease.

Randall showed no signs of letting his low score against Offley get to him as he plummeted Weshal Khan for a six down the ground to get the 2s off the mark in the first over.

However, it did take a while for the innings to really get going, with the 2s opening pair being restricted in the first ten overs. Fantham continued to plug away, though, and hit some lovely shots into the leg side to rotate the strike as Randall looked to be the aggressor.

The former hit two lovely shots for four, but was then dismissed in controversial fashion. Sadeel Ali had looked to run Randall out at the non-strikers end the ball before, and then with Fantham seemingly not ready he bowled the next ball. Resultantly he edged behind and was sent on his way for 18.

That was the only hiccup for the second XI though who would go on to knock off the resulting runs in comfortable fashion.

Randall moved to 50 from 55 balls and would then require just 12 more deliveries to hit 30 runs as he won the game with a six and finished 80 not out. Mike James provided company at the opposite end, scoring in a similarly quick fashion.

He smacked two sixes and a four to finish unbeaten on 25 from 22 balls to help see the 2s home after just 23 overs of their reply.

It was another impressive display from Northchurch, whose batting performance was worthy of any Coliseum entertainment.

With three games remaining, the 2s are right in the hunt for promotion and possibly the league title too.

Captain's MOTM: Jack Randall for his unbeaten innings.