toss won by Sawbridgeworth

 Sawbridgeworth  266/3 (dec.) (56 overs)

 Rhys Wynne 19-4-68-3

 NMCC    139  all out  (34 overs)

 1) Rhys Wynne 26 (4x4s 26 balls)

 4) Kyle Claxton 25 (5x4s)

 lost last 6 wickets for 25 runs.

toss won by NMCC

 NMCC  173/8  (53 overs)

 3) Duncan Elder 73  6) Steve Thomas 31no

 7 batsmen were bowled

 Potton Town  174/4 (31.2 overs)

toss won by NMCC

 NMCC 169/9 (53 overs)

 1) Andrew Craig 43 (5x4s)

 3) Steve Tilley  42  (3x4s)

 4) Shoaib Anwar  28 (1x4  2x6s)

 Old Haberdashers  122 all out(41.4ovs.)

 Jack Caulfield 9-3-20-3 

 Jeff Spencer 11-3-21-3

 Matt Williams 3.4-0-3-2

toss won by Met. Police

 Met Police 161 all out (45 overs)

 NMCC  134 all out (38.5 overs)

NMCC lost the toss and Met Police, determined to record their first win of the season, decided to bat. The decision looked to be a bad one when they crashed to 10-3, the skipper having bagged all three. With 14 overs gone, openers Bulger and Lawless had restricted Met Police to 14 for 3. The skipper, for all the right reasons made a double change and this provided some respite to the Police batters, who then took the score to 79 before the next wicket fell, Jason Baldwin turning one a long way to bowl the left hander. The introduction of Mark Terry brought 2 more wickets and we were again back in the game at 92 for 6. Yet another bowling change, the 7th, brought Martin Dee into the attack and although runs flowed freely from both ends, he ended up with 3 wickets but at a cost of 6 an over of his 5 overs, always difficult to bowl at the death. The skipper picked up his 4th wicket and Met Police were all out for 161 in 45 overs.
My philosophy of giving everyone a game could be questioned, and was, but I still believe if the youngsters are to improve they need to be given a chance. The biggest learning point from yesterday was our inability to bowl straight. Met Police scored only 115 runs from the bat, a total we passed with some ease, the remaining 46 runs came from us, 28 of which were wides and no balls which is directly attributed to the bowler. The 24 overs bowled by the skipper, Stuart Bulger and Mark Terry resulted in only one wide, the remaining 27 wides and no balls coming from the other bowlers in only 21 overs. Not good enough. Enough said.
Having got to 18 without any scares, we then lost both openers on the same score. Mark Elbourne and Stuart Bulger then put on 46 taking us to 64 when we again lost 2 wickets on the same score, poor Jack Eagling starting his Mymms batting career with the worst of starts. While Stuart was still at the crease the win was more than on. Sadly he became the victim of the 4th LBW decision of the day. Having scored a fine 66, we needed less than 50 to win but were now 5 wickets down. Sadly they were not as generous as we were in the extras department and although we comfortably passed the runs of the bat total, we fell 27 runs short with still 7 overs left. Still, onwards and upwards, top of the table Great Gaddesdon next week and I hope to be able to pick from strength if we can get out a 5th's. The 10 bowling points we got from the game keeps our promotion hopes very much alive and we are only 11 points behind the team in 3rd place. The next two weeks will define our season. MOM this week goes to Stuart Bulger for his fine 66, 2 catches, and 7 runs from 7 overs. Well done everyone and here's a return to winning ways next week                                                                                           Ian Lawless

 toss won by Old Elizabethans

 NMCC  108 all out (40 overs)

 Old Elizabethans  109/5 (30 overs)

 toss won by Old Camdenians

 NMCC  144 all out (46 overs)

 3) Shoaib Anwar 54 (6x4s 2x6s)

 6) Damian Southall 24 (4x4s)

 Old Camdenians  148/5 (20.3 overs)

 Matt Williams 5.3-0-40-2

 toss won by NMCC

 NMCC 115/4 (45 overs)

 Great Gaddesden  93/5 (17.4 overs)

What was always going to be a difficult game, was made more so by poor availability and last minute drop outs, the consequence of this was we arrived at Great Gaddesden with only 9 men and Steve Rowsell coming along later when finished work. Can I thank everyone who played because by playing we saved the 10 point penalty we would have incurred had we cancelled which would have been very easy to do when we only had 7 at the start of the week.
Having won the toss, we maintained our philosophy and batted first, great credit to openers Mark Terry and John Tunnell for having the technique to keep out one of the best bowling attacks in the division, they were both great and both very conscious of our brittle batting line up. In fact we reached 49 before losing our first wicket and when JT was later out for a fine 45, a batting collapse had been averted. JT is in fine form this season and a great asset and foil to Mark at the top of the innings. Off our reduced overs of 45 we only scored 115 but equally had only lost 4 wickets with contributions from Steve Rowsell, Paul Terry and a welcome return to Jason Silvey who hasn't picked up a bat for 3 years, with an unbeaten 13 it looked like he hadn't been away.
With 41 overs, soon reduced to 40, GG set about getting the runs by trying to smash every ball out of the ground, they certainly enjoyed huge amounts of luck but we held onto some fine catches to ensure they were losing wickets on a regular basis. I must confess, for one of the very few times in my term as captain, I abandoned my philosophy of giving everyone a game, and opened the bowling with Mark Terry, and made changes at the other end, Mark repaid my gesture by picking up 5 for 25. When the final, critical downpour came, we only wanted another 5 wickets for victory and GG were still 23 runs short with only 18 overs left, we were gutted, but reluctantly accepted the 10 points for an abandoned game with insufficient overs being bowled in the second innings to constitute a match. So GG maintain their unbeaten record and we remain well placed for a promotion push.
Lots of positives from the game, the welcome return of Jason Silvey, the debut of Ben Clark with a good catch, the fact that Martin Dees mum, Mandy, can now score, thereby improving Martins selection chances, the fact that Martins Nan brings along a mobile tuck shop for the personal use of Martin and the Skipper, well done Jean and finally, the knowledge that we can compete against the best teams and not let ourselves down.
Numpty of the week goes to Jason Baldwin who 5 mins before tea announces he has left all his whites at home. Well done mum Suzy who then drove to the ground and ensured we only had to put up with him fielding in black for 3 overs.
MOM this week goes to Mark Terry for diligent batting and 5 wickets, although JT came close. MOM's now stand at MT 2, Bulge 2, JT 1, Ben Howell 1. Unbeaten table topping Reed next week take on the fighting fours, lets hope for better availability and more of the same spirit. Well done everyone, I'm proud to be your Skipper.      Ian Lawless

(first Chess Valley league match)

 toss won by NMCC

 NMCC  193/9 (45 overs)

 1) Rhys Wynne  40 (58 balls 4x4s)

 3) Jon Mather 49 (77 balls 5x4s)

 partnership of 77 from 16 overs

 4) Howard Cornwell 26 (66 balls 2x4s)

 Ealing 102 all out  (32.1 overs)

 Rhys Wynne 8-2-22-3 

 Dan Boucher 2.1-0-10-3

 After the opening stand of 29, the remaining wickets fell for 73 runs

(ended by rain)

toss won by NMCC

NMCC  131 all out (49.3 overs)

3) Simon Clements 24 (2x4s 1x6 69 balls)

6) Kwesi Roy (making his debut) 

 62 (4x4s 2x6s  82 balls)

Hemel Hempstead 90/8 (42 overs)

Danny Duggan  21-5-37-3

Kwesi Roy 9-1-24-4 Rhys Wynne  10-5-13-1

toss won by West Herts

West Herts  211/5 (53 overs)

Jibran Azam 20-1-61-1 

Steve Thomas 15-1-54-4

match abandoned

- rain

toss won by Bragbury

NMCC 178/6 (53 overs)

1) Andrew Craig 23 (1x4 60 balls)

4) Stuart Craig 64 no (6x4s 121 balls)

7) Jeff Spencer 33 2x4s 61 balls)

Bragbury  67/0 (20.4 overs)

toss won by Reed

NMCC 157/7 (47 overs)

Reed  158/3(32 overs)

 Once again we batted first, although this time by request, and once more, openers Terry and Tunnell got us off to a steady start reaching 37 before Mark was caught at short leg by the 2nd team import, Stuart Bulger was unlucky to go the same way first ball, this time a much better and harder catch. My eternal thanks to Stuart Johnstone for stepping into the side at the last minute and driving down from Cambridge to help us out following a last minute drop out, he must have wondered why he had bothered when he popped up a simple catch to point and set off towards the pavilion, much to everyone's surprise, the easy catch was dropped and 3 balls later Stuart was on 12.
The adage of making them pay was true in this case as Stuart ended up with an unbeaten 64 and the skipper also unbeaten on 11 made sure we got 4 batting points and we closed on 157 for 7. The second team player coming on late into our innings and picking up 3 wickets.
Our only significant rain break came shortly into their innings and the reduced allocation of 39 overs should have proved a challenge to Reed. Openers Bulger and Lawless got Reed 3 down and wanting 107 from the last 17 overs.
It was at this point the game took a significant turn in fortunes, the following 7 overs were bowled by the youngsters and without taking a wicket they yielded 66 runs, this took the game away from us and the second team player finished on 47 not out, Reed won comfortably with 7 overs to spare and by 7 wickets  Having bowled 12 overs for 35 runs, I'm truly disappointed that the crucial 7 overs cost 66, the blame is all mine and I take full responsibility, I need to have a little re-think. Some of our basic fielding was shocking and we should have pushed Reed much harder than we did. MOM must go to Stuart Johnstone for his fine 64. We must improve when we take on Knebworth Park VI next week at home. I know there was huge disappointment yesterday reflected in the fact that when I came out of the showers, everyone had left!!! Nothing we can do now, lets be positive and look forward to next weeks game.                                     Ian Lawless

toss won by Knebworth Park

NMCC 127/7 (40 overs)

Knebworth Park 59/4 (21 overs)

The benefit of having Met Police as our home ground means we have covered wickets and run ups. With both sides keen to play, surface water was pushed of the square and the game began at 2.15 having been reduced to 40 and 36 overs. We were invited to bat and lost wickets at regular intervals 12, 13, 24, 35 & 46.Throughout it all John Tunnell remained defiant at the wicket picking up runs where he could but not helped by the regular fall of wickets at the other end, no one had yet made double figures. James Tiley, playing his first game of the season, came in at 7 and put bat to ball and put on 25 with JT before being bowled for 14 from 22 balls. We then moved to 80 for 7 before the Skipper joined JT and together put on an unbeaten 47 for the 8th wicket which allowed us to end our innings at 127 for 8 with JT still unbeaten on 44. With only 36 overs to get the runs Knebworth Park would need to bat well to force a win. Opening bowlers Ian (I've got to leave early) McCarthy and Mark Terry kept KP behind the rate required and Mark bagged 2 -28 and Ian 1-20 before the rain became too intense and common sense prevailed when the two captains agreed to call it off with KP on 59 for 4 from 21 overs leaving the game finely balanced with another 69 needed from 15 overs with 6 wickets in hand. 10 points each and no ground lost or gained as every game in the division was called off.                                                                                          Ian Lawless

toss won by Harpenden

NMCC 220/5 (60 overs)

1)Rhys Wynne 24(4x4s 60 balls)

2) Kyle Claxton 26 (4x4s 66 balls)

3)Andy Lewis 63 (3x4s 2x6s 106 balls)

5)Paul Coverdale 54 (3x4s 4x6s 53 balls)

7)Kwesi Roy 24 no 1x4 1x6 18balls)

Harpenden 155 all out (50.1 overs)

Kwesi Roy 14-1-38-5 Mark Saxby 10-2-36-3

In the absence of regular skipper Simon Clements, the replacement was Andy Lewis and he led the team to their first win of the season.

After being put into bat, the innings was divided into four parts.

overs 1-10  produced 13 runs,    overs 11-20    48, overs 21-50    69      last 10 overs   90

Wynne and Claxton gave the innings a sound start.

lunch score  94/2 from 35 overs  Lewis 22   Saxby 7

  Harpenden were in complete disarray being reduced to 12/5 after 10.1 overs thanks to excellent opening spells from Kwesi Roy and Donovan Miller.

tea score 79/5 from 24 overs  Hooper 38  Jones 25

However, stern resistance was provided by Hooper, Jones (a very impressive knock), Mahoney and Arnold, who courageously batted despite suffering a damaged wrist incurred whilst fielding to his own bowling.With Mahoney shielding Arnold from the strike very successfully it looked as though Mymms would be thwarted from achieving a crucial win as Lewis was forced to continually change his bowlers.After looking so secure Mahoney was dismissed, completely out of character, shouldering arms much to the incredible relief of the visitors with 5 or possibly 11 balls (if time had permitted) to spare. The last pair had defied Mymms for 14.1 overs.

toss won by      Radlett

NMCC            188/7 (53 overs)

2)Duncan Elder  35   (3x4s  55balls) 

3)Jibran Azam   59   (8x4s 64 balls)  

6)Andy Moody   23no (2x4s 45balls)     5)Sushil Patel    22    (2x4s 57balls)     

9)James Oram  20no (3x4s 24balls)

Radlett            172/8 (47 overs)

James Oram 10-1-26-2

Dan Boucher 4-0-13-2

At one stage Radlett were 160/2 after 41.1 overs needing 29 from 5.5 overs

(with 3.1 overs to spare)

toss won by      NMCC

NMCC             223/2 dec. (50 overs)

1)Steve Tilley 35 (2x4s 110 balls)         3)Imran Malik  103no (13x4s 2x6s  125balls)

4)Shoaib Anwar  42no (7x4s 40 balls)

unbeaten partnership of 121 from 15 overs

Greenwood Park  127 all out (46.5 overs)

Ian McCarthy 13-4-34-2        

Ed Ridge  9.5-2-31-4

Shoaib Anwar  7-3-5-2

Having won the toss (well skippered) we chose to have a bat and set
off on the 5 minute walk from the pavilion to the pitch!  Having got their
and realised the bails were still in his car "the skipper" put in a little
cross country jog to get them (well run) and the game eventually got under
way.
Russ Bennett opened the batting, sporting trousers rolled up to the knee,
added a few then got out, caught behind, given by Macca (well triggered!).
Imran then came to the crease which worked out quite well.  Imran started
slowly, almost being overshadowed by Steve Tilley scoring a quickfire 35
off 135 balls (well blocked!).  The 100 came up in 35 overs, quickly
followed by Steve's demise.
Shoaib came to the crease and him and Imran got a bit of a wriggle on.
Imran batted well  to 50 on debut and then treated himself to 103* with
some great stroke play.  Shoaib adding 42* as we declared on 222-2 off 50.
We then hiked back to the pavilion, ready for our £115 tea.  With mouths
watering at what delights we would be tucking into for that sum of money we
made it back much quicker than we got out to the pitch earlier.  Tea was asurprise.... donuts and sandwiches are clearly expensive these days (well
robbed!)
We then had a bowl and got them out for 130 (well bowled, well caught!).
Jeff 1st ball - wide, nearly missed the actual strip.  Macca then fell to
the floor, practically hyper-ventilating!  Roll-over to next week as nobody
picked a wide.
Well played boys, 4th in the league now!                   Matt Williams

toss won by NMCC

NMCC 109/8 (47 overs)

Watton-at-Stone 106 (all out)

A historic day for the club with 3 wins and a draw for the league teams and the first ever appearance of a 5th Team in Mymms colours, the future certainly looks good for the club in terms of numbers.
The 4ths took on a strong Watton-At-Stone II (WAS) yesterday, sitting 4 places above us in the table. At the toss their skipper announced that he had had 4 first team players dropped to his team and was therefore quite strong, despite that we stuck to our principles and batted first, the going was really tough against a good opening attack, one of the first teamers, playing div 5 the week before, tested the patience and resilience of our regular openers Terry and Tunnell, or double T as I call them.
The opening stand of 41 took 18 overs before Mark tried to hit out at one that kept a little low and lost his middle stump. By the time we reached 28 overs we had still only reached 70 and JT, Stuart Johnstone and Andrew Goodliffe had all joined Mark back in the Pavilion. Damian Southall put bat to ball and scored the top score of 23 before picking the wrong one to hit. At 93 for 8 with only 3 overs left it was doubtful if we would make 100 but we hadn't bargained on Ben Howell and Ross Wiltshire, who together put on 16 in the last 3 overs to remain unbeaten on 12 and 5 respectively. Little did we know at the time how vital those precious runs would prove to be.
So with 109-8 we set about picking up as many points as we could get, being 8-0 down at this stage. Ross Wiltshire following on his good work with the bat bowled the young opener in his first over and we were on our way, they were always well ahead of any run rate but losing wickets at steady intervals. At 4 down, the skipper picking up 2 and getting a run out, the first team bowler arrived to join his other first team colleague and we knew this was the vital partnership of the innings. Mark Terry had played against this guy before in Div 5 and advised us he was a hitter with a good eye, the skipper replied that he wouldn't be hitting him around the ground and 3 balls later regretted the comment as he was dispatched for 6 over cow.
With the game starting to get away from us as they took the score to 75 for 4, Jason Baldwin managed to induce a thin edge from the first teamer and we had an end op