Enfield remain in second place in the Middlesex County Cricket League Division Two after a dramatic one-wicket victory at neighbours Southgate on Saturday.

Without the presence of as many as three regular starters, Enfield knew a win would keep pace with table-toppers Stanmore who themselves tasted victory against Eastcote.

Enfield captain Kyal Bacchus-Brown elected to bowl first at The Walker Ground, with the visitors welcoming back Tom Bolt into their ranks.

The aptly-named Bolt tore through the Southgate line-up with devastating regularity to finish with impressive figures of 6-57 from 20 overs.

He set the tone early with the dismissal of opener Tom Edrich, caught by Jack Plumb for 18, before dismissing Michael Stevens for a golden duck to leave the hosts at 23-2.

The seamer would then go on to dismiss the entire top five, with only captain Shoaib Zulfiqar offering much in the way of resistance with a well-fought 31.

Southgate had Phil Dunnett to thank as he produced a timely innings of 73 to help his side to 189 all out.

In reply, Enfield’s scorecard featured low scores punctuated with valuable runs from the likes of opener Plumb (22) and number four Samuel Smyth (35).

David Woffinden (3-51) did the early damage to reduce the visitors to 32-3 and when Chris Long fell to Darragh Edwards for a second ball duck, Enfield were in trouble at 35-4.

They rebuilt thanks to Smyth and skipper Bacchus-Brown (28), only to collapse from 92-4 to 108-8 as Ravi Desai (2-46) and Stevens’ economical 2-18 tore through the middle order.

However, a strong partnership between former Southgate player Faisal Mir, who struck an unbeaten 47, and Arthur George (32) took Enfield to the brink of victory.

With one over left – Enfield requiring four runs and Southgate one wicket – Bolt drove through the covers to score the winning runs, handing his side their sixth victory of the season in the process.

Winchmore Hill remain in seventh after slipping to a disappointing three-wicket defeat away at Wycombe House, who rose to eighth.

In a low-scoring affair, Hill were put in to bat and did little to trouble the scorers as they were skittled out for a below-par 121 all out.

Things got off to a rocky start when Morgan Prior was bowled by Mohammed Azizi after just three balls of the innings for 0.

Sam Weller (15) and Jim Gatting (23) put on 38 before the former was caught and bowled by Sohail Elahi (4-40).

Before long they were three down as the same fate befell Gatting, this time off the bowling of Sohail’s brother Mehboob, to leave Hill hanging precariously at 54-3.

Mehboob then struck three times in quick succession to remove Mitchell Todd leg before wicket for 13, captain De La Rey Terblanche for 1 and Jack Irwin for a stubborn 9, to finish with figures of 5-37.

Winchmore did make a fist of it in reply. Thomas Kopelman (3-32) helped leave Wycombe at 29-4 and then 46-5.

Captain Bilal Chaudhry (14) and Haras Butt (26) added useful runs but at 89-7, it was firmly game on.

Unfortunately for the visitors, a dogged partnership between Talha Malik (11 not out) and an unbeaten 21 from Hassan Hanif saw Wycombe home.