Former Bessborough chairman Nitin Modha showed he can be an asset on the field as well as in the boardroom by claiming a stunning seven-wicket haul on Saturday.

Modha finished with incredible figures of 7-31 to give the Boro seconds the simple task of chasing down South Hampstead’s 104 total at Headstone Manor.

Boro’s firsts had seen their clash with Perivale Phoenicians fall victim to mother nature in a weekend washout of fixtures in the Middlesex Championship.

They took their place at the bar as the second-string exorcised the demons from their harrowing defeat at Southgate a few weeks ago by this time successfully chasing down a low target following Modha’s fine work with the ball.

Despite the early loss of Captain Phil Bush (seven), Bessborough’s reply got off to a decent start as Adil Parker (25) found the boundary with some lovely drives, but when he and Will Grogan (16) were out with the half the job done the runs dried up as South Hampstead fielders circled.

Memories of Southgate came flooding back when Tharshan Kanagaraj (four) was run out following a suicidal call by Sanil Shah, but this time there was no need to panic as Shah (24 not out) and Rishi Patel (21 not out) coolly saw the side home.

The win sees Bessborough move up to joint fourth in the Middlesex County League Division Three, closing the gap on leaders Osterley to 14 points.

Elsewhere, Friends United defeated listless Shivam at North Acton by huge margin to put their promotion chase firmly in their own hands in Middlesex Premier Cricket League Division Two.

United won the game by 98 runs and have 100 points from their opening seven matches. Best batsman was Jigar Vassantlal (29 runs from 50 balls) and Kirit Mohane’s 3-11 made him the star bowler.

Rain affected play across much of the Middlesex County League as Stanmore, Harrow, Harrow St Mary’s and Kenton all saw their matches bite the dust.

Two games did go ahead in Division Three, with MTSSC’s faster run-rate earning them a winning draw against struggling Ickenham.

Sharuvinothan Yoganantham’s unbeaten 60 guided the Tamils home after Kavi Kannathasan’s three-wicket haul had put the visitors in a decent position.

Wembley also had a faster rate to give them four points from their clash with near neighbours Harrow Town, who are now

second-from-bottom and have only won once so far this term.