Various journeys negotiated with relative ease out to West London and the toss was taken 15mins ahead of the scheduled start time. As is customary when in charge, Tom lost the toss, but rather surprisingly was put into bat. A curious decision by Northfields' skipper. Perhaps he'd looked at the archives and thought he could bowl us out cheap and knock 'em off quick.

With the Skipper's request to just build a platform ("I don't care what the score is at 20 overs, let's just have wickets in hand") Messrs McGurn and Cosgrove strode to the crease and got us off to a bit of a flyer, putting on 32 off the first four overs, aided by some pacy but wayward bowling. That changed quickly when the first change bowler came on and removed both openers in his first over, including knocking Sean's castle over from his very first delivery.

However, Suri at 3 and guest Mick Le Mare at 4 played beautifully and really pushed us into a position of strength. Suri being typically bullish against the pacers and Mick looking all class, driving through the v with aplomb and unfurling wristy leg side flicks when the bowlers line strayed that way. They rode their luck at times on a tricky wicket but their 119 run partnership simply bred confidence amongst the team. Suri succumbed, possibly a little frustrated by the slower bowlers, for 47 but Mick marched on, eventually falling for a wonderfully crafted 83. The rest all did a bit, with Niraj getting a red inker and Joey Anderson pulling off one of the shots of the day, taking a decent ball off middle stump and reverse sweeping it to the fence. PCC innings closed on 234 for 9. Always important to bat all your overs and not get bowled out!

In reply, the Captain did his best to gee the boys up as they took to the field... 235 would require some chasing and if we got off to a good start we could really turn the screw, so the message to the bowlers was about discipline. Bowl a good line and length and let the new hard cherry do the work on an unpredictable pitch. Openers Sham and Niraj Thakker did exactly what was required. Sham removed their dangerous opener with some extra bounce as the batter played on, and Niraj coming down the slope, displayed some excellent control to remove their Number 3 clean bowled, and then take an outstanding caught and bowled to remove the next man for a duck. All of a sudden, Northfields were 19 for 3 off the first ten overs and The Plough smelled blood.

However, there was just the small matter of removing two decent batsmen who were growing in confidence with every delivery. Lonnen bowled some unplayable stuff in between being belted out of the ground a couple of times and Joey had a crack but it wasn't until Elmo came on that things really started to happen. We all know leg spin is hard and finding rhythm and the right areas from the get-go is a tall order, especially if you're bowling to two set batsmen. However, The Mole is a different bowler if given the chance to settle and, even better, an early wicket to raise his confidence levels. He broke the key partnership taking a caught and bowled off a top edge to remove the opener and then, courtesy of another superb catch by Thakker on the Long Off boundary (get your best fielders in the key positions!) he also removed the big hitting Northfields Captain.

That may well have seemed like game, set and match but we've let games slip from better positions so there was no room for complacency. What followed, though, was pretty ruthless from the Plough XI. Elmo took another, bowling a fella round his legs - a wicket that every leg spinner loves to take, before Mo Khan came on at the other end and took a wicket with his very first ball. Tempting tail enders into whacking him out of the park before deceiving them with that loopy flight is what Mo does nicely, though - Suri only too happy to grab two sharp stumpings to help polish off the Northfields innings.

Ploughmans winning by 100+ runs on a Sunday doesn't happen very often but it was thoroughly deserved after a really excellent team performance against a decent side. Northfields play the game the right way and really enjoy themselves out there so bring on next year's fixture.

Match report from Tom Lonnen