Scorecard

Northwood Town CC, Middlesex 2nd XI v St Albans Cricket Club 3XI on Sat 09 May 2026 at 13:00
St Albans Cricket Club Lost by 6 wickets

Match report With another long winter in the rear-view mirror, a much anticipated first outing for the 3XI sadly failed to live up to the excitement and expectation of what was a strong side assembled on paper. In the end, it was a bit of a wakeup call to the fine margins of league cricket.

As is always the case, there was a strong 3XI contingent on Thursday for the last session with coach Howeson talking up the entirety of the top order’s displays against the bowling machine – this is by no means Howeson’s fault, as 63mph full ones are always good for the ego and we all enjoyed spanking them and receiving our just praise, but perhaps in future we can incorporate some at closer to 50mph on the back of a length to give a good feel for the arena we’ll be plying our trade in this year.

After the usual Saturday tune ups in the nets, it was 45 minutes in the car to Northwood Town, which is more like 55 minutes if you’re Murph and need to stop for a Vanilla Caramel whappy happy frappe-chino with cream from Starbucks on the way. He did manage to run off a good portion of the circa 1200 calories consumed in this one beverage with a punishment 2.5k for his lack of batting exploits.

This ground was the scene of a very damp farce of a game last season, so it was good to see the sun shining this time. Lovely day for it. Telks was, as usual, the first to arrive and sent his customary picture of the strip into the team Whatsapp chat. Unfortunately for West, he was left to wonder the contents of this picture in the last 10 minutes of the journey, as his passenger princess Rudlin has decided to go “off the grid” when travelling in the car by leaving his phone out of reach - 2-feet behind him in his bag on the backseat.

Nothing looked especially unusual about the pitch on initial inspection. Skipper West would have batted first but lost the toss anyway and was then asked to pad up – maybe the feint sound of alarm bells should have been ringing at this point.

Murray and Rudlin walking out to the middle to open up for the 3XI always warms the soul. Unfortunately, this warm feeling wasn’t long lived, with Stu trying to flick one off of off stump through midwicket. Castled. West came out with a backup B3 stick thanks to their brand ambassador Tooley’s generosity. First ball full bunger rocketing off the middle through mid-on for 4 after a mere push. B3 know their way around a cleft of willow.

Sadly, it was the age old, mistimed drive that did for West – cover moving to his right and snaffling it. This commenced a collapse, with Streety lasting 4 balls of his 2nd debut (it’s great to have him back regardless), with Dean and Murphy then falling prior to drinks. The latter obviously liking the look of the team B3 willow, as he took it out for one forward defensive stroke before calling for his Jamie Regan AK that he’s currently got on trial. An inspired change which brought with it the shot of the day - a creamed cover drive.

Squash failed to cease the collapse, with Hingston snicking through to the keeper after chasing a wide full one 3 balls after the restart. Credit has to go to the Aussie for walking, as Altaf nearly commenced WW3 by initially signalling a wide. This probably didn’t place us in the best of positions with the standing umpire in the second innings, but more on that later.

Rudlin, who had done his best to keep pace with the overs count by drinks and had fallen 1 run short of this milestone, was soon on his way back to the pavilion. Well battled given the circumstances, but with the 3XI now 66-7 in the 22nd over, it was not looking like the first day anyone had hoped for.

Tooley and Hicksy combined for the highest partnership of the innings, amassing 32 runs together with good footwork to the spinners, and sensible cricket. Ben fell to a pretty spectacular caught and bowled which would have likely caused injury to the umpire if not held by the bowler. 108 all out in the 35th over to close, which was probably 50 runs short in hindsight.

Telks and Altaf started the defence, with a few balls giving encouragement as some ducked low and others beat the edge. Altaf looked to have their skipper pinned LBW in front, but this was waived away by the umpire. This was in addition to some questionable wide calls from the same bloke – not what we like to see.

Their other opener was pretty gung-ho and rode his luck with streaky shots accompanying some quite good ones. Unfortunately, none of his numerous skyed efforts fell to hand. The standouts being a sharp chance off the skipper’s bowling to Murph at slip, West misjudging and dancing around a tough one straight behind the bowler, and Streety palming one down running back up the hill from long-off.

The slow bowling off Hicks and Murph gave some encouraging signs, but it was all a little too late. Perhaps introducing them both earlier could have changed matters, but in truth, the total amassed to defend was well short of what was required.

The 3XI have been here before, as after a poor showing in a first matchday loss in 2025, they rebounded to go 6 games unbeaten. With two games back-to-back at SLCG in the coming weeks, there lies a great chance to set the foundations for what will need to be a nigh on impenetrable fortress at the home of cricket this season, if there are serious aspirations of escaping 7 West at the 3rd time of asking.




St Albans Cricket Club 3XI Batting
Player Name RunsMB4s6sSRCtStRo
extras
TOTAL :
6w 7b 6lb 
for 10 wickets
19
108		        
Stuart Murray b V Barad 5 18 1 27.78
Andy Rudlin ct T Shah b K Puwar 20 54 3 37.04
Zach West ct Unsure b H Janardhanan 11 19 2 57.89
Samuel Street b P Pandey 1 4 25.00 1
Ashish Dean b K Puwar 4 14 28.57
Adam Murphy b K Puwar 6 9 1 66.67
Ben Hingston ct T Shah b V Patel 0 7 0
Ben Hicks ct S Shukla b S Shukla 11 28 39.29
Richard O'Toole b S Shukla 26 37 3 70.27
Md Altaf Husain ct Unsure b S Shukla 5 13 1 38.46 1
Jamie Telkman Not Out  0 5 0

Northwood Town CC, Middlesex 2nd XI Bowling

Player nameOversMaidensRunsWicketsAverageEconomy
Vishal Barad5.0018118.003.60
Harish Janardhanan6.03919.001.50
Pradip Pandey8.0122122.002.75
Krunal Puwar8.032036.672.50
Viral Patel5.0016116.003.20
Sanjay Shukla2.401033.333.75

Northwood Town CC, Middlesex 2nd XI Batting
Player name RMB4s6sSR
extras
TOTAL :
1nb 6w 1b 2lb 
for 4 wickets
10
110 (24.2 overs)		     
Bijendra Vaghela ct S Street b A Murphy 65 69 7 3 94.20
Tushar Shah b B Hicks 20 50 3 40.0
Harish Janardhanan ct A Husain b A Murphy 0 3 0
Pradip Pandey Not Out  10 16 2 62.50
Sanjay Shukla b B Hicks 1 3 33.33
Hardik Nakum Not Out  4 6 1 66.67
Tejasvi Srivastava  
Jayminbhai Patel  
Krunal Puwar  
Viral Patel  
Vishal Barad  

St Albans Cricket Club 3XI Bowling

Player NameOversMaidensRunsWicketsAverageEconomy
Jamie Telkman5.002000.004.00
Md Altaf Husain4.001600.004.00
Zach West4.003100.007.75
Ben Hicks7.2127213.503.68
Adam Murphy4.011326.503.25

  • Umpire :
    Team
  • Scorer :
    Team