4th team get off to a winning start!

A typical first day of the season greeting us all on the top ground. Cold, cloudy, hard wicket with generous covering of grass and glass-like outfield.

No surprise when Harpenden won the toss and elected to bat first. Both skip, Dave Benham and Del Reddy started with tight opening spells, Dave was rewarded with a couple of wickets, both clean bowled, and although Del didn’t have any luck with wickets he created much pressure, which was reflected in his final figures of 10 overs 5 maidens for 14 runs. First change was Noah Osborn and Jonny Underdown, the spin twins proved a great combination of left and right arm spin which tied down the Harpenden batsmen. The generous grass covering meant not much in the way of lateral movement off the pitch but both used clever variations of speed and flight to rip out Harpenden’s middle order with three wickets between them. Next up the bowling ramp were Alex Bartlam and Finn Morgan who both continued the very impressive bowling. Dave continued to keep the Harpenden’s batsmen guessing and turned to bowlers number 7 and 8: Dad Guy Osborn and Rob Holman mopped up the remainder of the innings, Guy winning the Osborn bragging rights with 3 wickets, including the dangerous Gilson who held Harpenden’s innings together with a composed 75.

Good effort to restrict Harpenden to 151, the bowlers were backed up with energetic and brave fielding, bodies on the line in the face of some unpredictable bounces and we all took our catches, even yours truly (Nick Horton) rolled back the years (decades) to take some sharpish efforts.

Our reply started badly as our author managed to hit a full toss straight to point. Noah and Matt Bartlam quickly followed which left us at 22 for 3 after 10 overs. Opener Angus Kildare and Alex steadied the innings to 44 after 22 overs. Del then chipped in with a breezy 14, and was unlucky to be caught on the boundary. Meanwhile Angus was still holding down the other end. All looked lost as Dave and Finn quickly departed to leave Hertford on 91 for 7 off 36 overs, but remember Angus was still there… Jonny and Rob then gave us all a lesson in brave, uninhibited batting in the face of considerable pressure, scoring 11 and 12 respectively in quick time. So the last wicket of Angus (did I mention he was still holding up an end?) and Guy Osborn were faced with the formula of 20 off the remaining 5 overs, which turned into 10 off the last over and 7 off 4 balls, at which point we realised Angus had just been toying with us all as he calmly despatched the next two deliveries for 4 in the growing gloom. An innings of legendary proportions, Angus carried his bat for 61 not out.

I have to write it was a privilege to play in such a such an excellent game of cricket. The youngsters really stepped up to the plate and the spirit in which the game was played was summed up at the end of the day when the Harpenden players came up us in the bar to apologise for having to leave early (to get the youngsters back home) and shake our hands to thank us for a “great game”. No better way to finish a match report.