The 2’s drive for promotion continues with a routine victory against youthful Letchworth Garden City V

Last weeks game against Letchworth Garden City Vs involved a trip to the village of Henlow in Bedfordshire. We welcomed back Steve Pullen, whose nose had repaired itself after a mishap in the 1’s, and Zaf ‘Yoda’ Basit who used the healing powers of The Force to leave him with barely a mark after last weeks cut on his cheekbone. The weather was pretty hot as usual, we lost the toss and Letchworth chose to bat.

The LGC innings was opened by captain Jeremy Gilham and county U15 player Liam Bishton. Both batted solidly on a decent batting track against the opening bowling of Lee Crocker and Naz Asif and scored largely through glides down to third man. The score crept along until Naz bowled their captain for 11 in the 12th over (28/1). Crocker was replaced by Sanket Shah, who bowled his best spell of the season, bowling 11 overs and ending up with figures of 1 for 38. The batting continued to crawl along, with runs trickling up at about 2.5 an over. Naz finished his 9 over spell with the impressive figures of 1 for 11 and was replaced by Darshan Raval, who must have spent the night in Henlow as he was the first person at the ground for the first time this year (ever?) – could it have had something to do with the promise that he would bat up the order if he got there early……..? The second wicket fell for 95 in the 33rd over with Richard Downes bowling number 3 batsman David Craik (30) off an inside edge. Sanket then got the wicket of stubborn young opener Bishton who top scored with a well paced 43 With a placid pitch, fast outfield and only occasionally aggressive batting we settled into a defensive field setting, comfortable in our ability to chase any score. Wickets fell more regularly as the runs started flowing with Jack Craik contributing 30 until Downesey bowled him. An easy caught and bowled, another taken in the deep by Zaf Basit and an LBW gave Downesey his 5 wickets as LGC attempted to get to 170 and 10 batting points. They needed 3 from the last over and were helped by an ‘interesting’ decision from the square leg umpire David Craik who missed an obvious run out by about 3 yards. This ‘decision’ probably cost them 2 batting points as we made very sure that they didn’t reach 170 with the innings finishing on 169 for 8 wickets from the 47 overs in an otherwise well paced innings with the clear aim of maximising batting points.

The Village replied with Zaf and Crocker who made steady progress at about 5 an over against the young pair of opening bowlers Deron Shiers and Liam Bishton and change bowlers Matthew Gray and Charlie Piper. Darshan was getting quite edgy as it looked as if he might not get a bat at 4 meaning his Friday night camping expedition would have been in vain. Zaf was finally out for 39 in the 23rd over caught at midwicket from a mistimed pull (116/1). Crocker (55) followed next over, a bit puzzled at being given out LBW after taking a stride down the wicket (116/2) leaving us with two new batsmen, Piers Jenkins and Darshan Raval, at the crease. The new pair stabilised the innings with Darshan driving well and the score progressed to 155 before Piers (10) was well run out by bowler Liam Bishton. Patrick McGuigan was bowled first ball (155/4) and Dan Butcher (5*) and Darshan (33*) then saw us home to a comfortable 6 wicket victory.

Conclusions Darshan is capable of getting to a game on time. Richard Downes picked up a sneaky 5-for. Crocker got yet another 50. Steve Pullen's helmet needs some fiddling with. LGC are a better side than their position of 18th in the league suggests, with an effective mixture of youth and experience which should hopefully avoid relegation. Big game against 5th placed Botany Bay IIIs next week.

Mill Hill Village IIs 30 points, Letchworth Garden City V 12 points.