10 Man 4s Fall Agonisingly Short at Sandridge

Dave Spring and Steve Page started serenely and assuredly and therefore it came as a surprise when Steve Page was out LBW. Stu taking an age (2nd longest in the game) but ultimately deciding he could not find a reason to decline the appeal.

Springy and Nick Horton took the score to 90 at drinks, with both pinging some delightful boundaries and Dave Spring looking in especially good form, as his purple patch continues. Nick then went too early down the wicket and was stumped. It was then left to Springy to hit a magnificent 89 with good support from Jakub Pickering, Eric Riddle and Andre Rideout to take the final score to 178 for 6 off 40 overs.

In reply Sandridge slumped to 40 for 3 with the top 3 batsman all back on the bench, the wickets shared between Stu, Dave Benham and debutant Jax Clarke. It was Dave Benham’s LBW that must have been one of the slowest decisions in the history of 4s cricket, despite the pleading of the visitors, including Nick Horton on his knees behind the stumps, we reluctantly started to recycle the ball back to Dave when the batsman learnt of his demise.

Sandridge slowly stared to rebuild their inning but Kieran Perkins and Andre and Jax kept Hertford in the game to extent where Sandridge still needed 30 off the last 6 overs. Stu was forced to keep mixing things around due to on-field injury and only having 10 men to the extent that there was a rare sighting of Horton and Page bowling which led to a couple of collectors items: b Page st Horton and b Horton st A. Rideout.
Ultimately Hertford fell 2 wickets short, but congratulations to Jax and Kieran for taking their first senior wickets and Stu for maximising limited fielding resources on the day.

A stiffer test against Great Gaddesden awaits next week.

Author: Nick Horton