The chairman of Hampstead’s playing committee, Nick Brown, admits the men’s first team “dodged a bullet” in the Premier Division of the Middlesex County League on Saturday.

Jamie Gibson (4-39), Ragheb Aga (4-36) and Zak Khan (2-55) bowled out visiting Indian Gymkhana for 137 at Lymington Road.

However, Sumit Khullar (5-56) left Hampstead 66-5 in reply and, although Jonny Dunne struck 30 at No 6, another flurry of wickets left them nine down, still needing 20 runs to win.

Fortunately, Archie Fellowes (21 not out) and Patrick Young (13no) carefully got them across the line to secure the 10 points.

But Brown said: “We dodged a bullet. If we had lost we would have had no-one to blame but ourselves. As well as Sumit bowled to take out our top order, there was not enough in the wicket to make 137 quite such a torrid chase.

“Hopefully this will prove to be a wake-up for us and we can get back to normal with the bat next week, when we should also have Steve Clark, George Adair, Liam Hughes and Freddy Fairhead back available.”