North London men’s and women’s first teams are sitting on top of their respective league tables after a pair of hard-fought victories at the weekend.

The men hosted Eastcote on Saturday and were bowled out for 162.

Skipper Alan O’Shea top scored with 29 and there were contributions in the 20s from Milo Jennings, Will Jones and Lewis Matthews.

North London bowled the visitors out for 109 with Jones taking another five-wicket haul, this time for just 30 runs, to complete a 53-run victory and replace South Hampstead at top spot in the Division Two table.

Captain O’Shea said: “We have had some poor batting performances this season but our application is getting much better and our opening bowlers are proving too much for many opponents.”

On Sunday North London Women’s first XI maintained their 100 per cent record this season in a closely fought game against a Harrow St Mary’s side featuring four of this season’s Middlesex reps.

North London batted first and useful contributions against a strong bowling attack from captain Charlotte Bascombe (19), Hannah Burridge (40) and Amu Surenkumar (20) laid a platform for Milly Pope (43*) and India Whitty (41*) to add 65 off the last 8 overs to get the hosts to 178 for 3 off their allotted 40 overs.

Harrow’s reply revolved around County reps Bhavika Gajipra, Sonali Patel and Kate Coppack.

Surenkumar and Pope took the key wickets of Gajipra (54) and Patel (27) respectively, but at 121 for 4 the game was very much in the balance.

Emma Turner’s off breaks made the difference with three quick wickets and then Krishna Shah finished off the tail with another three-wicket haul as the last six wickets fell for 14 runs, leaving the visitors 43 runs short.

Captain Charlotte Bascombe said it was a high quality game with a lot of talented players on show: “I thought the girls’ discipline with bat and ball was excellent. Things are really buzzing with the NLCC women.

"We have already given 45 players a game in 2021 and that is before welcoming back several students. We are building something of real substance.”

The North London men’s Seconds were rained off, the thirds beat Ealing by 78 runs, the Fourths overcame South Hampstead by eight wickets with Dan Rosson starring with both bat and ball (64* and six for 14 off 5.3 overs).

The Fifths lost away to Winchmore Hill by seven wickets.