“Once more to the well” – Hertford 4s in another tight finish

No surprise when Hertford loss the toss and Flitwick IIIs asked us to bat on a weather affected juicy strip. Openers Steve Page and Nick Horton got Hertford off to a good start putting on 70 off 15 overs before both were undone by balls stopping in the pitch. Dave Spring and Rich Eaton continued the good work until the rain eventually meant an early drinks break (we played through rain most of the day but bouncing off the pitch was the standard for enough is enough). After the drinks break the spinners tied Hertford down with some accurate bowling, However Rich broke the shackles with a cross bat 6 over long on, but he ran out of luck next ball repeating the shot. Del Reddy contributed with another breezy 14 before choosing the wrong ball to charge and yorking himself. It then remained for the rest of the team to chip and keep Dave Spring company as he made a hard earned fifty, which took the score to a very respectable 181 given the challenging ground and overhead conditions. It would have been many more were it not for some excellent catching and fielding from Flitwick.

In reply Flitwick’s skipper came out of the traps flying, hitting 9 off the Del’s first over but perished first ball of Dan Orchard’s first over trying to hit over extra cover. Jonny Underdown and Dan Orchard then tied down the Flitwick batsmen with clever and accurate spells, finishing with 1-16 and 2-27 off their ten overs respectively. Hertford were well in control when the pressure led to the run out of their remaining opener and the score was 71 for 5 off 24 overs. However with a nod towards our bourgeoning supporters group (1s and 3s games finished early) we decided we were in the entertainment business and should keep the game interesting. We leaked 34 runs in 5 overs with some wayward bowling and suddenly the pressure was off the 6th wicket partnership and they settled into playing sensible, smart cricket and Flitwick looked like they had the game sewn up at 151 for 5 off 39 overs. However skipper Benham decided he had seen enough of the festivities and it was time to get back to business and took out both the settled batsmen in one over then mopped up the tail to finish with 5 for 14 off 6.3 overs. Hertford won by 18 runs.

Yet again a great team performance with everyone making contributions. We keep taking the games to the wire, “going to the well once more” and finding an answer. The win keeps the 4s 100% record start to the season.