Hertford 1st XI beaten by Radlett in season opener

On the opening day of the Hertfordshire Premier Division League season, Hertford took on last years regular season table-toppers Radlett at Balls Park, in what promised to be a tough test of a new look Hertford side. The toss was won by Hertford and they elected to bowl first on a green Balls Park wicket.

Wearing their coloured kit and using pink balls for the first time in league cricket, early signs were encouraging for Hertford as they keep the scoring under control and Radlett accumulated at around 4 an over for the first half of their innings. Chances were at a premium, and two difficult catches went down at point as Hertford struggled to break the opening stand between Tom Jenkins and Frazer Crawford. Jenkins scored more freely than Crawford and reached his half century first. After the mid-innings drinks break, as Hertford continued to search for the first wicket, both openers began to score more freely and the scoring rate lifted as Radlett set their sights on a score of 300 plus.

Both Jenkins and Crawford began to find the boundary more regularly and each soon reached their century. It was not until Richard Leather returned to the attack that both were removed as he first yorked Jenkins and then deceived Crawford with a slower ball to bowl both of the Radlett openers for scores of 115 and 109 respectively.

With two new batsmen at the crease Hertford were now able to exert greater control over the run rate and James Leather picked up 3 wickets in the closing overs, the first two identically caught on the long off boundary. Radlett ended their 50 overs at 311-5, with Hertford regretting the early missed half-chances and wondering what they would have been able to restrict the total to, had they been taken.

The Hertford chase started positively, with openers Richard Leather and Will Ray, matching Radlett's early scoring rate, and looking to replicate the manner in which Radlett had paced their innings. Radlett's opening bowlers looked slightly more threatening early on than their Hertford counterparts, however it was not until the introduction of spin to the attack that Will Ray was tempted to accelerate the scoring and was caught at mid-wicket off the bowling of Kabir Toor for 33, leaving Hertford 76-1. This started a tricky period for Hertford, where they were unable to regain momentum and lost the wickets of Elliot King, Ollie Ray and Stuart Barker leaving them at 115-4.

Richard Leather made it to 50 shortly after, however in an effort to score at the now required rate of over 8 an over, was caught at deep mid-wicket for 53. Benji Cowell followed shortly after as he too set out with positive intent. This brought together James Leather and Ben Gethin-Golder who quickly put together a very encouraging partnership, in which Leather made 77 and Gethin-Golder 34. A cameo from Brad Dawson pushed the Hertford score in excess of 250 but Hertford were all out for 258 from the penultimate ball of their 50 overs.