Enfield 311-3 (45 overs)

Southgate 162 all out (31 overs)

Luke Hutton 41, Shoaib Zulfiqar 39

Top of the league Enfield were far too strong for a weakened Southgate side without two of their best players.

The home team were invited to bat and took advantage of perfect batting conditions and short boundaries.

The Enfield openers, Plumb and Edwards, brought back memories (for us older members) of Smith and Norville, a fine opening pair from the sixties and early seventies, who similarly plundered opposition attacks.

They added 269 for the first wicket, with only one chance given by Plumb when he had just 52, but otherwise they batted beautifully in totally different styles. Plumb, technically correct, Edwards, a mixture of extraordinary, powerful hits coupled with quite a few play and misses and the odd inside edge. Darragh Edwards was particularly unlucky early on against his namesake.

It was a difficult afternoon for Southgate but in a final total of 311-3, David Woffinden’s figures of 2-28 in nine overs stand out.

It was a hopeless task but an opening stand of 76, at 7 runs per over, between Luke Hutton (39) and Shoaib Zulfiqar (41) gave the tiniest glimmer of hope but it was not to be. Small contributions from Adeel (21), Jamie (14) and Phil Dunnett (21 not out) enabled the visitors to reach 130-3, but a collapse to 162 all out was, in reality, inevitable.

An interesting battle developed between captain Phil and his predecessor, Faisal Mir (3-42), with a certain amount of steam rising between the two. The latter made early inroads into the Southgate batting with three good wickets but was unable to achieve his main goal, as his overs ran out.

Enfield will hold their own in the Premier next season whilst sadly, Southgate are doomed for the third division.

That is painful to say, and equally painful to write.

Peter Jouning