Dominant Dawson helps 2nd XI Finish Strong Season with Win

It’s been a strong (half) season for the Second XI. Indeed, it would have been an unbeaten term without the Northwood aberration. We ended the season as the second-highest placed Second XI in the Herts League. Chandler’s disdainful century against Hoddesdon will be remembered fondly by all except the bowling attack which he reduced to shadows. His partner in crime that day, Pavey, scored runs aplenty in July and early August but made his most telling contribution when he let Paul Williams travel to Flitwick after the weather had already done for the game. Hopefully Paul will forgive him in 2021. Hugh Cavener caught pigeons for fun, Dan Orchard bowled some rapid spells and Tony Rhodes refused to go for less than 3 an over or operate at less than 135 decibels volume. A debut 50 for Rob “the Magician” McCarroll and a stunning 89 from Brad Dawson - more on this below - bookended a very enjoyable year for the Second XI.

For this we have to thank Pavey and Ollie Ray for their endless hard work and our scorers Paul, Jamie Lawrence and Kirts for their time each week. Thanks also to Gus Joyce, for his selfless non-selection at the beginning of the season - hopefully he will return in 2021! - and the huge number of volunteers that have got the club through this potentially sticky time. Finally, I’d like to thank the players. We should not underestimate the talent that we have at this club and accordingly the competition for places is excellent. While some clubs appear to operate solely to feed their first team, I hope you would agree that we have largely maintained our “whole club” feel. This was felt keenly in the Second XI where, whether you were Rob McCarroll or Ross Murphy playing in the Second XI for the first time, or Johnny Underdown joining us from the coloured-kitted strugglers in the Prem, every player applied themselves manfully and played for the team. Helped along by our legion of space cadets, we enjoyed each other’s company and it’s been a pleasure to be a part of. Long may it continue.

Right, where were we?

Hertford’s Second XI travelled to picturesque Northchurch on the final day of the 2020 season. Only the white of the pitch stood out against the deep green blanket of the outfield. Overhead, skies worthy of midsummer begged the captain who won the toss to bat. If ever there was a day for Captain Orchard to break his duck in this regard, today was it.

Pleasingly, he did.

Messrs Walsh and Lyte began cautiously against a disciplined Northwood opening attack. Lyte played well through the offside, guiding anything short for four down to third man and hitting with control through point: only the upward-sloping boundary on one side prevented his shots from reaping even greater rewards. Walsh played diligently and chose carefully which balls to pounce upon - this he did with a very pleasing, almost Sobers-esque flow of the bat. Only once spin was introduced did Northchurch make a breakthrough, Lyte dismissed for 30 by a delivery which bounced more than expected and found its way to the keeper’s gloves via the outside edge. Number 3 Abeywickrema looked characteristically busy at the crease but was undone by one of the few deliveries of the day not to bounce true. With Abeywickrema adjudged lbw, Dawson arrived at the crease.

Taking a liking to Northchurch’s otherwise miserly young medium-paced swing bowler, Dawson cut the ball hard, channelling his inner Robin Smith to pepper the fence everywhere from extra cover to backward point. Just as Dawson looked set, however, Walsh was stumped. It was a momentary lapse of focus in an otherwise impressive display. McCarroll and Dawson then combined at the crease, utilising their contrasting styles to good effect. If McCarroll was Casanova-like as he charmed the ball into gaps in the hosts’ field, Dawson preferred the Stan Collymore approach. As Dawson battered the Northchurch attack, McCarroll was charging towards a second fifty of the season. Sadly, McCarroll was undone by the flight of Northchurch’s off-spinner and Wood departed soon after for 9, adjudged lbw. The score had reached 190-5 and just over 10 overs remained.

Captain Orchard joined Dawson, set on 65 not out. The pitch was playing well but the miserly openers were returning to the attack. Hertford would have to throw everything they had at the bowling to reach 250. Dawson, somehow still sporting a jumper in the warm September sun (his teammates assumed he’d forgotten his playing shirt), continued to plunder runs as Orchard found his feet. Two overs then saw Hertford accelerate and effectively take the game beyond Northchurch. First, Orchard charged the quicker of the openers and found the fence straight of mid-on: he followed this with a wise single. The bowler altered his length, clearly thinking he had been too full. However, he could only watch as his good-length delivery was met by the full face of Dawson’s blade, swinging in a compact but violent arc. The ball disappeared back over the bowler’s head. Seldom has a single shot established such authority over a bowler, and it was some minutes before either the ball or the bowler’s deflated ego could be located. Orchard opened the following over by finding a boundary with a shot placed to perfection (see “edged through the vacant slip area”) before four wides compounded the hosts’ frustration. The batsmen scurried quick singles and twos before Dawson - probably feeling the heat in his 40-tog sweater - dispatched the bowler over straight midwicket. Hertford’s 250 was up, and Dawson was approaching the nervous 90s.

Sadly, Dawson was not to reach three figures, or indeed even taste the nervous 90s. He was caught at long-off for a sublime 89. Underdown and Orchard scurried 17 inventive runs (Underdown’s reverse sweep was clever, Orchard’s ramp was merely ambitious) and the innings ended on 269-6. Orchard was again deprived of a maiden league century, this week just 64 runs short on 36 not out.

At the resumption of play, Northchurch’s young opening pair were faced with Orchard and Murphy, a sight seen (relished, perhaps?) by many a Sunday village side in the North Herts area over the past decade. Orchard found movement with the new ball and trapped the Northchurch keeper in front in the first over. Murphy, charitably asked by his captain to bowl up the hill and into the breeze, began nervously, sending down two legside wides with his genetically defective bowling action. But he quickly adjusted and drew an edge from the remaining opening batsman, only for Dawson to fumble as his knee struck the ground. The Northchurch number 3 looked uncertain against Orchard’s pace and seam-movement and was soon caught behind; many of the team remarking that it would have been a professional-looking dismissal if he hadn’t nicked the ball while backing away from the ball. Murphy continued to build pressure with a consistently probing line and used the slope to good effect before bowling the remaining opener for a well-deserved maiden Second-XI wicket. At the other end, Orchard was charging in at a speed normally reserved for ladies attempting to avoid some of our 1st XI. First, he rushed through the defences of the left-handed Northwood number 5 and then similarly bowled the hosts’ number 6 batsman to leave the home side 29-5. Murphy drew a number of false shots out of the Northchurch captain and was unlucky not to hold a caught and bowled chance.

With the opening sortie over, spin was introduced. When not acting as the side’s space cadet ambassador, Noah Osborn was the Second XI’s leading wicket taker in 2020. He and Underdown set about the batsmen with differing approaches: Osborn using guile to tempt batsmen into a false shot, Underdown probing the batsmen’s defences forcefully. It was Underdown who struck first, dismissing the Northchurch captain with a stellar delivery that disturbed the bails. Osborn joined the party soon after, Walsh taking a good catch in which he somehow trapped the ball between his wrist and collarbone whilst having the majority of his weight on his head.

However much the charge to victory had been slowed, it was ultimately unstoppable. The spin twins bowled their combined 18 overs for 60 runs and claimed one more wicket each - both bowled - before the injured Northchurch number 11 trudged to the crease. His teammate, the hosts’ young seam bowler completed a memorable 1st XI debut by smiting a boundary to deep midwicket and later earning £20 from his Dad for being not-out at the close of the innings. But it was not to end so pleasantly for his injured companion, who had the ignominy of being Orchard’s 5th and final victim: bowled middle stump.

The crushing margin of victory - 152 runs - emphasised how impressive the performance had been and left Hertford outright second in Division 2B, perhaps left to rue the defeat at Northwood and Allenbury’s “cancellation” which deprived Hertford of 20 possible points.

Next year will be the true test, but 2020 can be chalked down as a successful base from which to launch.

Written by Ben Orchard.