On a cool Wednesday evening, Northchurch travelled along to Watford in the Watford Observer Plate quarter-final, and after a good warm-up thanks to Romit Patel, the skipper, Ollie Johnson, won the toss and had no hesitation to field first.

Opening the bowling would be Johnson and youngster Harry Bennie. The innings started off with Johnson bowling a leg-side wide, much to the amusement of Bennie who was made to do push-ups by Johnson the night before for bowling leg side wides.

Bennie got into his work quickly though, bowling good pace and areas and was soon rewarded for his consistent start when Gurijan edged onto his stumps. Johnson found his rhythm and soon picked up his first wicket game of the game, bowling number 3 Rach. Bennie then rearranged Panesh's furniture with a beautiful inswinging yorker to as Watford were reduced to 21-3.

Johnson then bowled Captain Hutchins to leave Watford 25-4 and in real trouble of not posting a decent total. A partnership started to develop between Sunny and Rajpurkur when they decided to free up their arms and run hard between the wickets. Bennie would finish his spell the way he started it when he bowled Rajpurkur with a well disguised slower ball. He finished with figures of 3-25 in his 4 overs whilst Johnson finished with 2-21 off 4 overs.

After the opening pair had finished, Northchurch turned to experienced 1st teamer Patel and 2nd team skipper Harry Chapman. Patel's first ball was a thick edge between keeper and gully which was a sign of things to come in a spell which deserved more.

Chapman liked the look of a typically dusty Watford Town wicket and he got into his work by using plenty of changes of pace whilst also getting lots of turn to keep Az interested behind the stumps.

Patel made another break through just as another partnership was developing, as Hobbs found the fence with a few aerial shots but eventually played one shot too many as he picked out Bennie at mid on. In his eagerness he nearly misjudged the ball but managed to adjust himself to take a smart catch.

Chapman couldn't rely on fielding to back up his bowling as number 4 Sunny (40) hit one straight to Johnson along the ground and went straight through him much to the pleasure of the home supporters. Chapman was then unlucky as a catch went through the fingers of cover. He was eventually rewarded for his excellent spell when Sunny came down the pitch and edged behind to Az.

Jack 'The Bear' Randall then came on to replace Patel for a one over burst and then Chapman finished the innings off only going for 7 and gave Johnson at long off a chance to redeem himself in front of the Watford supporters as it took him 3 attempts to catch the ball - as Chapman finished with figures of 2-20 off his three overs.

Northchurch were happy with the work they had done in the first half and had the luxury of having batting from 1-11 (we would need to use everyone).

The skipper decided in the absence of Six hitting Jimmy Smart that Ben Pyne was a suitable replacement. Pyne opened with Jack Randall who got Northchurch off to a flying start and put on 30 for the first wicket before Randall was bowled for 14 off 12 balls.

Pyne was then joined at the crease by Romit who knew exactly how to play this situation, giving Pyne where possible the strike. Romit and Pyne put on a stand of 56, putting Northchurch on 86-1 with plenty of overs and wickets in hand.

All of the players on the balcony were confident until Pyne got caught trying to go over the top falling agonisingly short of a well deserved 50 (41 off 30). This would be the start of a collapse which would turn the game on its head.

Watford bowler Wazarika dismissed Pyne, then shortly after, Romit tried to work the ball to the leg side and was pinned LBW for 17 (86-3).

Dawson arrived at the crease after a good knock the previous Sunday but was bowled for 0 (86-4) as Wazarika claimed 3 victims in one over. Az looked to take the game back to the bowlers when he hit a lovely straight drive before being undone by a slower ball and chipped back to the bowler (94-5).

Johnson joined Ronak at the crease with 17 to win and still plenty of time left but Northchurch continued to make life difficult for themselves. Ronak was able to punish a couple of bad balls before getting over confident and edged behind off Wazarika for a quick 11 (102-6).

Next up was the Northchurch wall Joel James, who supported Johnson to try and nudge their way to 111. The pair looked comfortable until NCC needed two to win. Johnson, who was probably the most experienced member of the side, blocked three balls before going for a big slash across the line and looping an easy catch to bowler Wazarika which nicely gifted him his 5fer (109-7).

Joel took over the strike and two balls later found himself walking back to the pavilion for 0 (109-8). Chapman and Bennie were at the crease with both having not faced a ball. Everyone on the balcony couldn't believe what was happening as opener Khan came back on looking to sweep up the tail. Bennie would only last two balls as Khan got one to keep low and bowled the youngster. This left cult hero Adam Forshaw who last picked up a bat on his wedding night - and luckily, managed to survive the rest of the Khan over.

So after 27 eight ball overs it came down to two off eight balls. Rajpurkur returned to bowl with his changes of pace, which meant the out of form Chapman had to concentrate and wait for the right ball unlike many before him.

Each ball was met with an air of silence. Chapman blocked the first 2, missing out on a ball that was on his legs in the process which he was furious about. Then with the fourth ball in the over, Chapman played a big drive outside off stump and a noise had been made on the balls passage through to the keeper.

The Watford town players were all up appealing but the umpire was unmoved. People were split on whether the noise had been the ground or not, but there was a massive sigh of relief among the NCC players and supporters whose nerves were all but ruined.

Rajpurkur ran in to bowl the 5th ball of the over and put it on Chapman's pads who wasn't going to miss out this time as he flicked it past square leg for the two Northchurch needed to win as they sealed victory in thrilling fashion.

Man of the match - Ben Pyne for playing a brilliant fluid innings.

Thanks to Jackie, Chris, Mrs Bear, Danielle, Bex, Ali and Charlie for their support it's much appreciated.