The Saracens Herts Cricket League has come to an end, with Mill Hill Village’s 1st XI earning promotion for a second-place finish and the 4th XI’s own promotion waiting to be rubber-stamped by the league. Previously millhillvillagecricketclub.co.uk looked at the Village's most prolific run-getters this summer; now it's time to look at our highest wicket-takers.

Mill Hill Village's top 10 highest wicket-takers in Saracens Herts Cricket League's Saturday fixtures according to Play-Cricket is as follows:

1. Sam Smith
36 wickets, 9.28 average, two five-wicket hauls
2. Marcus Cara
25 wickets, 10.65 average, one five-wicket haul
3. Inthikhab Mazeez*
20 wickets, 9.80 average
4. Momin Sadozai
20 wickets, 10.95 average, one five-wicket haul
5. Shiban Sayed
20 wickets, 13.75 average
6. Thomas Smith
19 wickets, 15.68 average
7. Hamdard Jan Temori
18 wickets, 23.22 average
8. Shahid Rahman
17 wickets, 14.94 average
9. Andrew Godfrey
17 wickets, 13.24 average
10. Sahil Mehra
15 wickets, 13.33 average, one five-wicket haul
*nine games for MHVCC 2nd XI, eight games for Flamstead CC

All-rounder Sam Smith tops Mill Hill Village Cricket Club players with the most league wickets in 2024, bagging a mighty 36. Smith, who was recently named Player of the Season, voted for by his teammates, also topped both the Highest Run Scorer charts for the 1st XI.

Seam bowler Smith (pictured above) not only topped the club’s own charts - he also topped Division 5A’s bowling charts as a whole in terms of wickets taken, a truly impressive achievement. His nearest rival in terms of wickets taken was Nathan Stiffen of North Mymms 2nd XI with 30 wickets. In addition, to cap a memorable season, Smith also made the top 10 run-getters in the division - usually coming in at number five, he scored 294 league runs in 2024. No surprise, then, that in September, Smith scooped a hat-trick of awards at our end-of-season awards ceremony.

Of the players in the division who bowled at least 20 overs and took five wickets this season, the Village’s Tommy Smith (no relation) had the best strike rate, taking a wicket at every 15.88 balls, compared to Sam's 15.28.

Only two bowlers in Division 5A had a better average than Sam Smith’s 9.28 - Devam Shah (8.55) of Old Owens CC’s 2nd XI and Abdul Wahid (8.67) of Luton Town & Indians CC’s 2nd XI (qualification: five wickets/20 overs).

The Village bowler with the best economy rate in Division 5A was spinner Obaid Ur Rahman, who conceded an average of 3.37 an over.

For our 2nd XI, three bowlers made the Division 7 East’s top 10 highest wicket-takers: Inthikhab Mazeez (this includes the wickets he took in the second half of the season for Flamsted CC); Momin Sadozai; and 2s captain Shiban Sayed all took 20 wickets to finish fifth, sixth and seventh respectively in the division's best bowlers charts.

The 3rd XI's left-arm swing bowler Andrew Godfrey finished tenth-best in terms of economy rate (2.88) in Division 10 East.

The 4th XI’s Kaneel Mathurata and Hamish Mistry were among the top 10 highest wicket-takers in Division 11 East.

millhillvillagecricketclub.co.uk has also crunched this season’s league statistics to bring you the top 10 bowlers for each of our four adult Saturday league sides, from the 1st XI to the 4th XI - see the PDF below to see how you fared.