London Maccabi Vale 2nd went down by two wickets in a friendly against Harrow Weald.

Batting first on a damp pitch was always going to be tricky, and so it proved as LMV slumped to 18-3, with Nigel Rothband, David Freedman and Gould all departing early on.

Ben Lederman and Alex Haffner took the score to 48 before Lederman was bowled by a beauty. Haffner was then joined by the veteran Jeffrey Permutt and slowly they began to form a good partnership.

Haffner was content to push the ball around for one's and two's in his innings of 38, whereas Permutt took a more belligerent attitude hitting seven boundaries in an innings of 57. They put together a stand of 110 in 21 overs, which meant that LMV achieved a respectable score of 166 in our 40 overs.

In reply, Harrow Weald were soon in trouble as Lederman took an early wicket. Despite constantly changing the bowling, no further wickets fell for quite a while, but neither did many runs.

With 20 overs remaining, HW needed exactly 100. However, one over later, a sudden downpour and a 20-minute delay meant that LMV were bowling with a very wet ball, advantage HW.

Wickets for Gould, Sanford - an excellent C&B - and another from Lederman kept LMV in contention, and with darkness approaching a quick three-wicket burst from Jonathan Freedman evened things up.

Excellent 38th and 39th overs from Jonathan Lederman and Gould took the match into the final over, but an inside edge down to the fine leg boundary took Harrow Weald over the finishing line.

An almost farcial ending in near darkness, but an excellent match played in a competitive but friendly manner.

London Maccabi Vale Cricket Club 2nd XI 166-8 (40 overs)
Harrow Weald CC 170-8 (39.2 overs)
LMV lost by 2 wickets