Twickenham's U10s find themselves on the cusp of winning the Division Two title following a veritable demolition of Barnes (see here for the card) on Friday 27 June. Going into the game Barnes were second and Twickenham were third. Whoever won would leap above Roehampton and into the box seat with just the one round of fixtures to go. Twickenham did that with quite some aplomb.

Jaden Mate is at that hat-trick thing....again!
Barnes won the toss and after quite some deliberation decided to bat. Charles Hickman set the tone nicely, opening up and hitting 11 off his 13 balls. Oskar Olesen-Twe followed him with 8 (11 balls), but those two aside it was - at least for the first two thirds of the innings - the bowlers who were very much on top.

Opening bowlers Faris Iqbal (1-2 off 2) and Vince Hough (1-4 off 2) did an excellent job, whilst James Marsh (1-9 off 3) and Harvir Ghere (1-7 off 2) helped turned the screw. The Ts were slowly but surely getting a grip of the game.

It was nonetheless Jaden Mate who again really caught the eye. For the second time this season he helped himself to a hat-trick as he decimated the Barnes middle order

By the time the last Barnes pair came to the crease it was clear they needed some drastic long handle if they were going to set Twickenham a total that would be anything like challenging.

Teddy Smith certainly set to that task manfully, blasting 30 off 14 balls. He was particularly impressive in the first two overs, hitting a number of boundaries around the wicket. There's a talent to keep an eye on.

But, Marsh and Mate bowled overs 19 and 20 and between them they kept things impressively in check as Barnes closed on 264.

Scoops, reverse sweeps and plenty more besides
A small ground with a decent artificial track meant that the Ts were certainly favourites to chase that total down.

Sam Allen, a man who was decidedly in the wars all day - keep an eye out for the beautiful shiner he'll have for most of next week - managed at one point to dive full length into the stumps when completing a single, but his 13 (15 balls) helped kick start the Twickenham innings. Neither Allen nor Jack Baran (7 off 9) were out as the Ts began making decent inroads.

Jonty Thornton and Massimo Constantopoulos were both unorthodox in technique and at times decidedly wild with their running, but between them they battled through against Teddy Smith (2-5 off 2) in particular, arguably the hosts' best bowler.

Harvir Ghere and Jaden Mate, batting as the third pair, were perhaps rather more subdued than they'd generally be, but neither were out and the score kept gently ticking forward.

'Gently ticking forward', however, was not what the fourth pair of Stan and Vince Hough had in mind. They ran like a pair of whippets on steroids, and they soon got the Ts beyond the Barnes total and ahead of the game. Hough (V) hit hard through square leg, Hough (S) got out a battery of different off drives. Between them they put on an impressive 41.

That left James Marsh and Faris Iqbal to see the Twickenham ship home. Charles Hickman (0-5 off 2) bowled well against them, but both batters had plenty of fun when he didn't have ball in hand. Marsh even got out the toys, reverse sweeping for four before then scooping for four more. It was Iqbal who arguably played the best shot of the lot, driving the last ball of the day forcefully through mid on for four. The Ts closed 70 in front.

The win sees the Ts four points clear of Roehampton and 12 points clear of Barnes (see here for the table). The equation is therefore simple; beat Teddington B on Wednesday 2 July and the title is theirs.