Northchurch restricted Watford to 20 for two after Ben struck early with the new ball on a good Meadow pitch. Watford rallied with two heathy partnerships before Ellis came back and, supported by Stan, knocked over the set batters. However, when the twelfth over went for 22, it looked like the visitors might rack up a big score.

Johnny had other ideas, his three for 13 ripping out the lower order, with a sharp run out in between completing a team hattrick that left Watford all out for 102.

In reply, Watford set good fields and bowled tight lines to restrict the Northchurch reply to two per over for the first five. Northchurch felt the pressure of getting bogger down by the Watford spinners, which resulted in ambitious and risky shots. Wickets fell regularly and the score board snailed along. Six of our batters were caught in the ring after facing a number of dot balls and none could really say that they had been dismissed by a good ball.

Lusty hitting from captain Charlie came too late, his 21 the only double figures score, and Northchurch limped to 70 for 8 from their twenty overs. The lack of game awareness was indicative of the recent rain affecting training and that we have not played a match since 19 May. With two in the next seven days, there are plenty of opportunities to work on strike rotation and patience at the crease.