With the weather smiling on The Meadow yet again on Sunday, Jamie Moughton won the toss and decided to field as the Sunday 2s finally ended their run of defeats.

With the Sunday XI choosing to bowl first the new ball was given to the familiar faces of Harry Bennie and ‘Silent Assassin’ Sunny Durani.

They both bowled very good opening overs to restrict Holmer Green to 9-0 off 5 and it wasn’t long before Durani lived up to his nickname, sending the leg stump of batsman Stockings (2) cartwheeling away with the first ball of his third over, which was also a maiden.

Bennie bowled another tight over before Durani picked up his second two balls later, sending Williams (6) back in similar fashion to his teammate. Bennie continued to keep it tight, going for only 22 runs off his opening spell of six, and was unlucky not to pick up a couple due after two shelled catches.

Durani then struck for a third time in the last over of his spell, again the pace of his slingy action undoing L. Rickets to end his innings of five boundaries and a single on 21, giving Durani impressive match figures of 6-1-17-3.

The first change of bowling saw the return of Matt Dawson from university, and promising youngster Ellis Jeavons, who started strongly with a maiden over.

A double wicket maiden followed as Jeavons trapped J. Stables (13) plum for lbw, and two balls later had T. Ayres (0) caught soundly at mid-off by Lloyd Debenham. Dawson took slightly longer to find his line, but was back to his usual self after bowling Atkinson (0) in his third over - the batsman playing all around a straight one.

Jeavons was to strike yet again in his third over as Day (21) holed out to mid-on where Joel James took a very tidy catch running backwards, which gave Jeavons seemingly impossible match figures of 3-2-7-3.

Following drinks, Debenham was thrown the ball to offer up some of his very part-time off-spin, who seemed rather surprised when he took the wicket of C. Stables (8) who tamely redirected the delivery to Ben Pyne at gully.

Charlie Sweeten bowled with good lines, but after Holmer Green reached 116-8 and with the knowledge that the Northchurch line-up didn’t have many established batsman, the skipper brought back Bennie, who was frustrated at the abundance of wickets after picking up none in his first spell.

But within two balls it was time for tea, as J. Rickets (15) slapped one straight to Dawson at cover, who made up for an earlier drop and held on tight before R. Ayres promptly was sent on his way back to the dressing room, when Bennie’s next ball removed the bails to wrap up the innings for Northchurch.

After an early tea, Northchurch returned to the field, confident that victory could be achieved. That confidence seemed well founded as Joel James and Ben Pyne made a good start to the innings, with a fairly fluid partnership of 37, before Rickets found the gap and knocked Pyne’s (18) bails off.
The wicket had a silver lining though, as younger brother Jude walked out to join James for the first time in senior cricket.

Alas, the partnership wasn’t to last, as Joel James was bowled by Atkinson for 12 three overs later. Harry Chapman (0) was sent in next, although his quest to find form with the bat continued as he mis-timed an attempt to go over the top only three balls in and heard his furniture rearranged by Rickets.

This brought captain Moughton to the crease who was batting higher than usual. However, after shouldering arms to the first ball, he knocked one into the off side, completely mis-reading the fielders and diabolically called James (7) through for a single which left him a long way short of his ground as he was ran out.

To make matters worse, as Debenham joined him and the skipper regained the strike after a leg bye, Moughton didn’t move his foot to the ball and was bowled by Day to quack his way back to the pavilion with two cheap wickets on his head.

Dawson was the next man in, and with Debenham (1) and Sweeten (4) continuing the flurry of wickets, things were looking very bad for Northchurch at 52-7 after 15 overs.

Some solid defensive work from new batsman Bennie interspersed with the odd scoring shot from Dawson created some very welcome stability for NCC, and with many overs to spare, they could afford a low run rate.

Although Bennie fell for only 1 as yet another batsman was bowled to take the number to seven, it had been a very gritty performance to regain composure for Northchurch.

It was this composure that was then built upon by new man Durani and Dawson (34*), who bore the responsibility admirably and went about their business in fine fashion, steadily knocking off the runs required when the chances came and rescuing Northchurch with a 50 partnership from what had seemed a dire situation.

As Durani (23*) hit a boundary to seal the win, there was a palpable sense of relief around the ground as Northchurch snatched Victory from the jaws of defeat.

Although not quite done in convincing fashion, this victory was the Sunday team’s first of the season, and Moughton’s first as captain. There were some very happy (and relieved) faces in the changing room afterwards, and it was a welcome reward to those who had seen the disappointing manner of defeat from the previous week and who had been working hard in the early part of this season to build towards this win.

Hopefully with a similarly impressive bowling performance and much-improved batting display next week, with the monkey off the back of a first win, it is onwards and upwards from here.

Joint Man of the Match: Matt Dawson and Sunny Durani for their composed innings and lower order runs to save the day for Northchurch.