Published: 26 July, 2012
by STEVE BARNETT

A FOURTH-WICKET partnership between Evan Flowers and Joe Hewton drove North Middlesex into the top three on Saturday courtesy of a good victory at home to Acton.

Deciding to bowl first, North Middlesex shared the early wickets around with Elliott Lowe, Nick Brand and Kaleem Hussein all picking up a scalp as Acton were restricted to 47-3.

A stubborn innings of 73 from Yasir Mehmood gave the visiting side a glimmer of hope, but when he was removed by a well-taken catch by Lowe off the bowling of Jaron Semper, Acton’s chances of taking something from the game went with him.

Semper and Tom Nicoll both picked up three wickets each as Acton scored 158-9 from their 55 overs.

North Midd made a horrendous start to their reply with David Stokoe and Adam Holmes both departing without scoring.

Nicoll didn’t fair that much better as he added seven runs to the scorecard before being bowled by Prabjeet Bhogal.

Flowers and Hewton delivered the much-needed stability as they batted sensibly to put on a stand of 103, with Flowers scoring 64 off 113 balls and Hewton hitting 51 not out.

Semper chipped in with 19 runs, while Nick Brand scored 10 not out to help North Midd get over the finishing line with a score of 159-5 off 42 overs.