North London returned to the scene of last year’s great escape – and triumphed again to climb into the top half of the Middlesex County League Division Three table.

NL stayed up on the final day of last season with a comfortable victory at Kenton and they repeated that result on Saturday, winning a low-scoring encounter by 46 runs.

That completed back-to-back successes for Sam Bardon’s side and they were again indebted to spinner Jordan Gregory, who returned figures of 4-22 as Kenton were bowled out for 116.

The home side won the toss and put North London in, gaining an early success when Mohammed Shafiq (2-29) pinned Hussain Shabbir lbw for seven.

Will Lake (31) and Simon Mintoft (31) steadied the innings with a second-wicket stand, although Chetan Vala (3-29) and Baqar Rizvi (3-16) bowled tightly to restrict the scoring rate.

Vala bowled Mintoft and removed Alan O’Shea for a duck, while Rizvi swept through the middle order as he captured the wickets of Bardon (4), Jack Godfrey-Wood (14) and Ralph Pedersen (12).

But the North London tail fought back, with Ted Greally hitting 21 from 19 balls and, with the support of Gregory (15) and Dave Schout (12), they mustered 162 all out from 53 overs.

Geoff Jones (2-28) put Kenton on the back foot in reply with the wickets of both openers, bowling Viraj Patel (11) and having Sachin Patel (6) caught by Bardon.

Mohibullah Oryakhel raised his side’s hopes with a quickfire 24 before he fell to Gregory, as did Rizvi (17) and Kaushal Patel (8), both victims of wicketkeeper Pedersen.

Gregory also dismissed Kamran Hornby (1), while Kalpesh Keria was run out for 14 and Bardon (2-9) helped to mop up the tail in the 38th over, dismissing Vala (13).