Hertford 2nd XI Lose 2nd Game on the Bounce

Captain Chandler was so unwilling to except responsibility for any key decisions that he asked the rest of the team what he should do at the toss, surprisingly the team said they would be comfortable chasing – the kind gents at Welwyn agreed and opted to bat first.

Dan Orchard opened the bowling from down the hill, rudely pulling rank on his opening partner Rhodes. The latter, who is now well into his 60’s, decided that coming up the hill would be too much like hard work and so offered the new ball to fellow senior citizen, Thompson. It was a solid start from the bowlers who took one wicket apiece but Welwyn managed to score solidly-enough and opener Lovell played out the new ball.

Lovell was the anchor of the Welwyn innings and despite many bowlers trying, Hertford were unable to dislodge him until the backend of the Welwyn innings for a fine 128. In between the completion of a century Hertford chopped and changed their bowlers with Osborne and Orchard being particularly solid in the middle over with good economy rates and preventing Welwyn from really getting away with a big score.

Dan Orchard returned for the death overs and removed Lovell and implemented the Yorker tactic well. Welwyn in the end closed on a substantial, but not unachievable 250-4 from 50 overs. D Orchard the pick of the bowlers with 2 wickets and Thompson and T Orchard picking up one each.

Much like the Welwyn innings, the Hertford one was typified by one opener scoring a century and the rest of the batting order getting starts. In this case Gus Joyce was the main protagonist scoring a classy 123 and set a formidable platform for which a successful Hertford run chase could launch.

Batsman 2, 3 and 4 all got starts but nothing substantial – when Dawson departed with Hertford on 110-3, Cavener walked to the wicket and surprisingly fluently knocked the ball about with Joyce for a useful partnership until he too fell. Chandler and Orchard couldn’t offer anything with the bat following Cavener’s downfall and so Hertford now found themselves precariously placed on 194-6 with very few overs left to complete the job. Osborne joined Joyce who was now solidly biffing the bowling and did a good job of giving him the strike moving the score to 222.

Unfortunately, just as it looked like the chase might be do-able Joyce was bowled and so the responsibility fell to Osborne who with Rhodes as a partner took the attack to Welwyn. Rhodes fell and now Hertford were really running out of balls Osborne kept connecting but just couldn’t get the ball away to the boundary meaning Hertford fell 3 runs short at the end of their 50 overs.

A shame to lose in the end but a positive-performance that was a world away from the weekend before, if a few chances had been taken early on then the result may have been different. Hertford 2’s face Potton at home next week in a game where they will be looking to really get back on track with a win!