Village Cup run underway

Another glorious day, another splendid ground and another fine result. The Village 1st team capped off an excellent bank holiday weekend with back to back victories, this time knocking out Division 4A side Chipperfield Clarendon, to progress to Round 2 of the Herts Trophy competition.

It was a shambolic start to the match as half of the team arrived late to the ground and stand in skipper Phil Smith then lost the toss and was invited to field. Despite this, Chipperfield were under pressure from the start with 1st team debutant Karan Gupta (2-29) bowling a really controlled spell and picking up both openers, as he completed 10 tidy overs unchanged. Tommy Smith, playing his first game of the season, snared the in-form opposition's overseas player cheaply, to leave the hosts at 31-3. Some resistance and watchful batting from the middle order helped the hosts innings extend to 42 overs but the Village bowling outfit were always in the ascendancy. 20 overs of slow bowling from David Overton (2-32) and Anand Kumar realised just 53 runs for the struggling Chipperfield line up. Marcus Cara was the main beneficiary of the scoreboard pressure and the youthful tail as he come on to mop up with 4-15 in 6 overs at the end of the innings. The hosts limped to 139 all out. Which was way below par on a fine batting track.

Despite the loss of an early wicket, the Village reply started brightly and a 65 run second wicket partnership between Farzan Dulker-Nain (36) and Phil Smith (27), brought the score to 78-1 and put the visitors firmly in control of the match. Perhaps it was the overly relaxed atmosphere, or the introduction of the wily off-spinner 'Gimbo' Gurney but the Village batting line up began to crumble in the heat. 78-1 became 103-7 and a disastrous loss looked a possibility. However, the batting line up was somewhat back end loaded and there was plenty of fire power still in hand. Marcus Cara came in and punched his characteristic array for forcing shots to rattle up 30 runs in short order and take Village to the brink of victory. He was the last man out with just a handful of runs needed for victory and the job was duly completed in just 25.1 overs.

The bowling strength of the Village continues to impress. The batting less so. Watford Town from Division 2A are likely to present a stiffer challenge and will require all departments to fire. 17th June at Home for the next round. Feel free to pop along friends!