Near neighbours, Shenley, visited us for an A fixture at sun drenched Cobden Hill on Monday evening.

Dylan won the coin toss and decided to make first use of what looked ideal batting conditions. Luke S and Harry got us off to a confident start, and having lost Luke (9), Patrick joined Harry to form a productive partnership. Harry waited for the correct balls to hit and was particularly ruthless on anything short. He and Patrick, who again looked assured with his stroke play, were ticking over very nicely, 70-1 at halfway. Then a mad five minutes for Radlett where three wickets were lost, including run outs of both our well set lads….eek…Harry (34, 7 boundaries) and Patrick (17) and suddenly a rebuild was required. Step up Akein, ably supported by Rohan N. Akein is in fabulous form, he quickly banished any panic and set about destroying the Shenley attack with shots to all parts, he reached retirement (42*) having struck three sublime leg side maximums (proper shots, not ugly smears over cow corner) and he has now scored in excess of 100 runs this season without being dismissed. Rohan N had played the perfect foil at the other end (15*). A third run out of the innings followed in the last over, Vivaan for 6, but by then a score of 152-5 had accrued.

At this point the dazzling sun had been gobbled up by cooling cloud cover, and the watching spectators were ditching their sunglasses for the warmth of blankets. Shenley had bowled their overs at a serene pace (notwithstanding various ball searches), so clock watching was another factor for Radlett to consider as they took to the field. Shenley made a bright beginning, one opener in particular threatened to take the game away from us, as he was quick to muscle anything loose to the boundary. It was Akein though who made the breakthrough, bowling him with a full length ball to ease early jitters. Raoul (1-18) quickly removed their other opener in the same fashion. Strangely, despite their ample wickets in hand, and the match very much in the balance, Shenley never engaged full throttle and with the run rate ever increasing the game in the end meandered to a conclusion. This was however largely due to our excellent attitude in the field, this has been our greatest improvement this season, our alertness and intensity has been spot on, and the pressure was always on the opposition batters as our fielders chased down every ball and put their bodies on the line. With darkness closing in, Shenley finished with 117-2 from their 20 overs, resulting in a comfortable 35 run victory. Some very good cricket being played by the U14s at the moment, long may it continue!

M.O.M. Harry was in the mix, but Akein was a colossus today, batted as though he never looked likely to get out, scoring his runs at the perfect tempo and then got their key man with a beauty, returning with game winning figures of 3-1-5-1. Fantastic performance Akein!