3rd XI Beat North Mymms by 2 Wickets

On what looked like a good wicket, skipper Codd took council from senior members of the team who all advised in to bat first if he could. Codd promptly won the toss and chose to field much to the delight of Messrs Carter, Cavener and Watson…

Andre Ridout was called upon to open the bowling having spent over 30mins trying to find the ground and visiting several churches and speaking to multiple locals on route. He must have wished he hadn’t found the ground as his groin went fairly early. Dave Benham also opened up but the Mymms openers got off to a solid start, making rapid progress to around 30.

Returning veteran Cliff Cavener was given the first change of bowling, despite Eaton’s protestations. Cavener however did settle in with the batsmen struggling against the moving ball. Benham was the first to strike taking both openers out who looked very good. One caught by Eaton and one by Rideout after a dreadful long hop which he managed to hit straight at Andre ‘on the 45’.

To be honest what followed then was a procession of batsmen all hitting it up in the air with most of them being caught by Eaton, looking as agile as a mountain goat and leaping like a salmon, Eaton finished with 5 (five) outfield catches. Carter also managed to snare a couple in the slips after dropping one early off Cavener. The innings was finished with an excellent caught and bowled by Codd. Particular note should go to the bowling of Cavener, Codd, Hesh and the returning Alex Bartlam. Mymms finished on 136 all out which did include 34 wides – Hertford hoped they wouldn’t rue such generosity.

Hertford’s reply started steadily between Carter and Watson until Spike was adjudged lbw with the score on 25. This brought Sam Read to the wicket who batted carefully under the watchful eye of his future father in law. Both batted well and moved the score on until both were caught behind the wicket. Cavener and Lewis Harris came together and took care against decent bowling until Cavener cut loose in one particularly brutal over hitting 16 off 4 balls.

Lewis fell with the score on 113 and Eaton came in and he and Cavener took the score to 124 with just 4 wickets down and 13 needed. However, never keen to do it the easy way, Eaton went for glory and was caught with Codd coming and going rapidly leaving the side on 127-6. At this point Cavener was also adjudged lbw and panic set in. Alex Bartlam went into bat and it was noted that both numbers 10 and 11 weren’t in whites, Andre only just on his way limping back from the scorebox.

First ball to Bartlem he got a leading edge which was taken at gully – at this point, pads, whites and everything else was being thrown around in the changing room as we tried to get someone on the field within a reasonable timeframe. Quite whether we met the 3 mins allowance I don’t know but it was poor Dave Benham who had to stand inside the boundary line trying to strap his kit on and walk to the pitch with bits still hanging off – suffice to say the opposition had a few words to say to him!

At 133-8 Hertford needed just 4 for victory and thankfully Dave along with Hesh looked unflustered and managed to nudge their way over the line. Hertford finished grateful for the 22 wides that Mymms had given back to them!

A great game, a great win, vindicating Codd’s decision to bowl first and even Eaton was persuaded to buy a jug for his first ever ‘5 fer’. Sadly they weren’t with the ball though.

Written by Richard Eaton