PB 3rds lose out to local rivals

Potters Bar 3XI 120 all out (50.5 overs)

Welwyn Garden City 3XI 122-6 (41 overs)

Potters Bar crashed to their 3rd defeat of the season on Saturday away to local rivals Welwyn Garden City.

Visiting skipper Ben Scarisbrick lost the toss and was put into bat on a damp, green wicket. It immediately looked like a bad toss to lose as the ball started to pop up alarmingly off a length almost from the first ball. With 8 on the board, young in-form batsman Adam Titmuss mistimed a pull shot to mid wicket and skipper Scarisbrick joined Daley at the crease. Runs were hard to come by as the ball lifted and seamed away, but the Potters Bar pair held firm and eventually managed to bring up the 50 in the 19th over. The pair batted sensibly, dispatching any bad balls, aware that the pitch combined with a very slow outfield wasn’t conducive to quick score and reached the drinks break at 72-1 after 26 overs.

The curse of drinks struck straight away however, as Daley hit a long hop straight to deep square leg and the partnership of 64 was broken. 2 swiftly became 3 and then 4 as John Lewis and Hayden Rogers were both out caught early in their innings and Bar had stuttered to 86 for 4. New batsmen Steve Moore and Ben Scarisbrick set about consolidating, but apart from a few well run singles, the runs almost completely dried up and with 10 overs to go Bar only had 104 on the board. Aiming to push on, Scarisbrick was bowled for 44 and Navindra Nath was out first ball and despite the decent start, Bar were in danger of self destructing.

On a pitch that was very difficult for new batsmen to score on, the scoring rate almost came to a standstill whilst wickets fell at regular intervals. Whitehouse the last man out in the 51st over with only 120 on the board.

Bar knew they had to take early wickets and Dan Brown and Alex Whitehouse both bowled beautifully to begin with limiting Welwyn to only 4 runs from the first 5 overs. Whitehouse then produced a snorter of a deliver to have Yates caught behind for 0 and leave Welwyn 8 for 1 in the 9th Over. The runs were still hard to come by and Isaac Moore trapped Emerton LBW to leave Welwyn with some work to do at 25-2. The odd ball was still misbehaving, but with the pitch and more noticeably the outfield drying, batting was certainly becoming easier.

A great catch from Dan Brown at cover off Hayden Rogers got Bar back in the game and Rogers then had McCue caught at gully by John Lewis and there was a glimmer of hope for Bar with Welwyn 74-4. However a decent 5th wicket partnership from Primaroto and the other Emerton, who eventually finished on 49 saw Welwyn to 100 and despite two late wickets from Dan Pett, Welwyn eventually came home comfortably with 4 wickets to spare.