The Park Road club were all out for 104 against the leaders and could have made the game much closer

North Middlesex lost out in a close match with Middlesex County League Premier Division leaders Richmond on Saturday.

Joel Hughes’ team batted first after winning the toss at Old Deer Park, but were quickly struggling on 13-3.

Tom Nicoll (12) and James Parslow (26) staged a slight recovery, but only 16 by Liam O’Driscoll at number eight saw them reach three-figures.

North Middlesex were all out for 104 in the end with a number of overs left to use and Richmond managed to make it over the line with four wickets in hand.

Captain Hughes said: “I won the toss and thought the wicket looked good, so decided to bat first.

“There was a bit more life in it than we initially thought though and we were too slow to realise that anything over 140 or 150 would have been competitive.

“Unfortunately we played some reckless shots trying to get more than 150 against some very good Richmond bowling.”

After a below-par effort with the bat, North Middlesex made a superb start in the field to give themselves a chance.

Ethan Bamber produced an excellent opening spell to take 3-18 off seven overs and Alex MacQueen backed him up with 3-40 off 8.4 overs.

It wasn’t enough though, as Richmond got home with four wickets in hand after 42 from Ben Compton.

Hughes added: “Ethan bowled a lovely opening spell and we were right in the game when they were 30-3 and then 40-4.

“Alex bowled nicely too, picking up three wickets, but 104 was always unlikely to be enough. We were only 30 to 40 runs short of making it into a really good game.”

North Middlesex will aim to return to winning ways this weekend at home to sixth-placed Shepherds Bush.