Hertford were put into bat on a green pitch at Balls Park. After the early loss of Richard Leather to the bowling of Connor Emerton, Will Ray and George Pavey were starting to build a platform before Pavey (15) fell to the bowling of Bridgewater with the score on 50. This bought Australian Liam Campbell to the crease and he and Ray batted sensibly and began to lay the foundations for a big partnership. After some initial caution and solid bowling both batsman began to attack, Ray brought up a fluent fifty and then Campbell followed after some lusty blows into the leg-side.

The assault continued with Ray looking ever more imperious and even when Campbell fell for a well-made 58, the score was on 169 which meant Hertford could attack the remaining overs. Ray and James Leather continued to accelerate and in the 43rd over Ray brought up a fantastic century, and one that Hertford will be hoping is not his last this season.
After Ray departed looking to accelerate it was up to Leather, King and Cowell to take the score to 245 off of Hertford’s 50 overs. With Welwyn’s batting line-up Hertford were going to have to bowl very well to defend that total and opening duo Andrew Knight and Liam Campbell did just that.

Both bowlers attacked the batsman early on with Knight having Louis Champion caught and then a few overs later, had the other opener Alex Chalker caught as well. A great start for Hertford, this brought ex-England batsman Owais Shah to the crease and before he even got started James Leather bowled him a short ball that he was unable to handle and was safely pouched by Pavey in the deep.

Hertford were now well amongst the Welwyn batting line-up and when Liam Campbell was brought back into the attack he proceeded to tear through the middle order and along with a run out, Welwyn were left 93-7. Jamie Southgate (63) was able to marshal some runs out of the lower order batsman but Welwyn never got close, a wicket for century-maker Ray and then a brilliant run-out from Rob Slater to remove Southgate left Campbell to pick up the final wicket of Bridgewater and Hertford to secure a brilliant victory by 63 runs.

Scorecard here >

Match report by George Pavey.