Zed's Diary
Follow our new 3rd Team skipper on his journey onwards and upwards. From humble beginnings with the A Team, Zed has now assumed charge of the 3rds. With the 2nd team captaincy next in his sights Zed continues his journey to the top.

Enfield 105-4 Accrington 106-1

The clouds were hovering over us, as the inconsistencies and vagaries of the British weather system continued unabated from last month. I managed to lose the toss and to my shock the Enfield captain opted to bat on a damp pitch.

This was the one match I wanted to win as we were on the receiving end of a hammering from their first and second 11 this season already. The favourite line from the Enfield faithful for most of the season has been (once I got someone to translate) 'If only we played Accrington and East Lancs every week we'd win the league'. I heard this 5 times on the day .....you'd think the Enfield faithful had a bigger vocabulary but unfortunately this is not the case ...this might explain why they kept a simple name for the cricket club (Enfield only has two syllables!)

Immy opened the bowling meandering in like an elephant on the verge of an epileptic fit every time he was about to release the ball. The first rain interruption came after 15 overs and Enfield were 51-1, Immy taking the only wicket. An hour and a half later and with the match reduced to 33 overs a side, we came out knowing that the advantage was with us .This time only an additional 10 overs were bowled before we had to go off again. In the end Enfield had to settle for 105-4 off 25 overs. The luck was with us somewhat and this was our chance to pull one over a decent Enfield side.

Matt, Scotty and myself accounted for the other 3 wickets that fell. Ian Johnson and Waqas were given the orders to open the batting. Mr Johnson started hitting the ball like a bull on heat and within 6 overs we had 50 up. You'd think the way the Enfield players bowled, they wouldn't even get a 'bowl' in a Chinese restaurant.

All credit to the opening duo of 'little and large' as they continued to toy with the Enfield bowlers, hitting them at will. When Waqas departed(31), the score had been propelled to 96-1 in the 12th over. After which we eased passed the Enfield score with Ian deservedly unbeaten on his favourite number (69*).

This was an emphatic victory albeit aided with a little help from rain but the way we played in the match overall was nothing short of outstanding particularly the batting. The team for the last 3 matches has played collectively and the bowling and fielding in particular has improved. I am hoping that this new found consistency carries on through to the end of the season.