Soundly beaten by Hoddesdon

A disappointing day at the office for the 1st team on home soil. Having lost an important toss, the Village found themselves toiling in the Sun for 53 overs with very limited success. Lack of wickets has been quite a rarity given the usual potency of the attack. An opening stand of 139 set the tone for the visitors and although the run rate was never excessive, wickets were kept in hand by the Hoddesdon line up, who were set for revenge after losing a close battle earlier in the season. After 45 overs the score was 166-2. At which point, the innings could have stuttered in the chase for quick runs. A total of around 200 may well have been within range. As it happened, the visitors made good use of their solid platform and the innings took off, with 83 runs being plundered from the last 8 overs. 243-3 at the end, represented a big total with only 47 overs available to chase.

Saahil Mehra deserves an honourable mention for an excellent probing spell which deserved much more than the 0-48 figures he ended up with. He proved himself a good stayer after reeling off 15 consecutive overs and giving the Village control throughout. There wasn't much else to shout about particularly after a couple of important catching chances went to ground. The story could have been very different had these catches been held.

In the early stages of the chase, 57-1 after 16 overs and then 95-3 after 26 overs, (Dan Potter, 40, & Majid Asif, 34) there remained some hope of a strong finish but the rate climbed and the pressure soon told. A flurry of wickets put pay to any hopes of victory, despite a brief late onslaught from Lee Cara (26). It was a tame and disappointing finish in the end, as the innings closed at 149 all out after just 37 overs. There was limited resistance and it felt like Hoddesdon were somewhat gifted the victory. The visitors had a limited bowling attack and having batted their full allocation of overs, the Village should really have made the opposition work a lot harder for this win. A bit more backbone needs to be shown by the 1st XI, who in recent weeks have been seen to capitulate a little too easily once victory is out of reach.