London Maccabi Vale claimed a comfortable nine-wickets win in a friendly against Crouch End.

On a lovely mid-May afternoon, LMV captain Neil Lederman lost the toss and, with head in hands, reported to his players that they were fielding first.

Harry Rothband and Josh Stevens opened the bowling and whilst neither took a wicket in their first spell, both bowled well and didn’t allow the Crouch End openers to get away. Josh, playing his first game for the club at the tender age of 12, already looks like a great prospect and there have been spread bets taken on him opening the bowling for GB at the next Junior Maccabiah.

Being so young he is only allowed to bowl four overs in a spell and was duly replaced by the equally youthful J. Freedman who picked up the first wicket thanks to a smart catch from Adam Spooner.

Lederman came on at the other end and showed that his catching has made no improvements over the winter, shelling a regulation caught and bowled chance. Despite his protests, Adam Brand, the other elder statesman of the side, was brought into the attack to replace Freedman, promptly claiming a wicket in his first over and was then yanked from the attack to protect his figures.

Marcus Faux, making his debut for the club, came on, with Gideon Gale bowling from the other end and provided a good level of control meaning that the Crouch End batsman were never able to kick on. Marcus eventually picked up a deserved wicket, which should have come sooner if Jeremy 'Teflon' Harris missed one of the easier stumping chances we are likely to see this year.

Josh and Harry both came on at the end and bowled well to restrict Crouch end, with Josh getting two wickets in two balls and only missing out on a hat-trick due to a missed catch by Teflon who claimed that Josh’s cheering squad put him off.

In reply, Mark Landau and youngster Adam Spooner made easy work of the Crouch End bowling, both reaching their 50’s, Adam was eventually out for a very well played 55 meaning that Brand could come in and, in normal fashion, finish the game off in quick time, with only 3 of his 35* not coming from boundaries, Mark finished on 65*, with his first 50 of the season.

Special mention must go to Alex Haffner who went home with Pad rash, Josh Stevens’s cheerleaders and Vale’s energiser bunny mascot Harry Brand, who is still yet to see turn up to a match and watch the team lose.