1st XI Beat Harpenden to Finish League in 6th

Winning the toss, Hertford's captain Ben Cowell elected to bat first on what looked set to be a fine day on a decent batting wicket. The opening pair of Will Ray and Martyn Chandler started cautiously against some steady bowling, taking the score at about 3 runs per over to 45 before Chandler was caught at mid-wicket for 14. In at 3, new recruit Fayaz Homyoon immediately upped the tempo, playing several stylish back foot punches through the covers against the off spin of Doyle and Latham. He and Ray were going along nicely together when Homyoon fell in similar fashion to Chandler, hitting a ball waist height to the mid-wicket fielder.

With the game in the balance at 90-2, Hertford hoped for a strong 3rd wicket partnership between Ray and captain Cowell who often bat well together. Cowell was the aggressor in the partnership. After surviving a big caught behind appeal, he took the initiative and the attack to Harpenden, scoring at more than run a ball for his 39. When Cowell was out, the score was 165-3 and Ray was well-set on 72. It seemed appropriate at this stage that Ray bat through the innings, allowing the power hitters in the middle-order to propel the innings well beyond 200. It was therefore disappointing when Hertford's most destructive batsmen, James Leather, was caught behind for 0.

At 169-4 and with just 8 overs left, Hertford would have been worried that the foundation set by the top order would not be capitilised on, and there slow scoring rate would leave them under par. Any concerns were soon quashed, though, as Ray and new batsmen Hugh Cavener began to find the boundary more frequently. Struggling to hit the ball straight on the slow-ish wicket against the left-arm spin of Garrett, Ray resorted to dab sweeping and reverse sweeping his way to his first 100 of the 2020 season. With able support from Cavener (10), Max Lawrance (13) and Adam Carlson (7*), Hertford finished on 247-6 for their 45 overs. They scored 97 from the last 10 overs and Ray finished on 106*.

Fresh off the back of 6 wickets for 2 runs the week before, James Leather took the new ball with Adam Carlson and the latter made an immediate breakthrough when James Latham drove a ball on the up straight to Ray at backward point. Next, Hertford looked to dislodge Harpenden's other opener and captain, Nick Lamb. After several plays and misses, Leather got the better of Lamb when he was well-caught by Cavener in the slips for 2. When no.3, Nick Reeves, was caught in the gully by George Pavey soon after, Harpenden looked down and out at 24-3; still needing 224 to win.

While the 1st, 2nd and 3rd wicket partnerships fell promptly, the 4th would take longer for Hertford's bowlers to undo. Tom Beasley and Scott Galloway batted brilliantly for a period of time, scoring freely against anything loose while respecting the good deliveries. Hertford turned to two of the club's 3 Orchards, Dan and Tom, bowling seam and spin respectively, to get the breakthrough. It was the younger Orchard, Dan, who did the job when Beasley drove a length ball straight to Chandler in the covers.

This much-needed breakthrough was followed by another partnership which tested the nerve of Hertford's young captain. Galloway was getting the upper hand against the Orchards when a clever change of bowling bought about his demise. In his first over, Cavener was able to dislodge Galloway for 42 from just 29 balls when he was caught at long on by James Leather. With several of Harpenden's more experienced batsmen out, Hertford looked to wrap up the innings swiftly and they were successful in doing so. Tom Orchard was able to reap the rewards of a good spell by picking up 3 wickets while Cavener added a 2nd to his tally also.

The returning James Leather bowled with good pace to take the final wicket of the innings, finishing with figures of 3-14, and when combined with last week's efforts... 9 wickets for 16 runs! A special well done must be extended to James who finished the season as the league's top wicket taker with 21 wickets at just 12.43 runs per wicket.

Harpenden finished their innings on 168, 79 short of Hertford's total. Hertford's 3rd win of the season left them with a respectable 6th finish. Having had opportunities to win each of the 4 games they lost, captain Ben Cowell will be frustrated not to finish with more points in his debut season but can certainty take lots of positives forward into the (hopefully uninterrupted) 2021 season.