3's win again

The Village 3's were at home against Hoddesdon 3's on a warm day.

After the rain the day before the toss was one to win. Thankfully the skipper won the toss and decided to have a bowl.

Andrew Godfrey (1-9) and George Leggett (1-12) opened the bowling and started well with both batsman finding it hard to score any runs on a tricky wicket. The first wicket came when George found an edge and Dan Penny did the rest with a simple catch. Dan Penny (1-20) and Tommy Smith (1-19) replaced the opening bowlers and continued to apply the pressure on the Hoddesdon batsman. Tommy got the next wicket thanks to another simple chance which Marcus Cara took. Dan then got the next one to fall with an excellent low caught and bowled to dismiss the Hoddeson's number 4 who had looked to play some shots. Their number 2 batsman who had stayed in and was keeping the innings together was then run out when Andrew Teague managed to get the ball back to the stumps for Farzan to take the bails off leaving the batsman stranded. Majid Asif (5-28) replaced Tommy and within a couple of overs had got his first wicket of the day. His next over would prove to be his most profitable with 3 wickets in 5 balls, and only missing out on a hat trick due to a solid defensive shot from the batsman. George and Andrew then came back on and Andrew picked up the last wicket to fall courtesy of another catch by Dan to leave the oppo all out for 93.

James Thompson (29) and George Downes (0) opened the batting and had to negotiate 5 overs before tea. It was proving tough to score any runs which probably brought about the run out of George due to a bad call from the skipper. Andrew Teague (17) came in next on his debut and looked solid and together with James put together a partnership to steer the Village towards victory. James started to play more positively by finding the boundary on a few occasions with Andrew chipping in at the other end. James was then out bowled which brought Andrew Godfrey (15) to the crease. Andrew Teague was then next out trapped LBW to bring in Phil Smith (25*) who immediately looked to take the attack to the bowlers. Andrew was also looking to attack and managed a quick fire 15 with a couple of lusty blows which found the fence. Andrew was then bowled which brought George Leggett (4*) to the crease who hit a nice boundary in his first over faced. It was left to Phil to win the game with consecutive boundaries with the winning runs coming from a 6.

Another excellent display all round to reduce the oppo to 93 and the victory was quite comfortable in the end. Special mentions to Majid Asif for his five wickets, and the rest of the bowlers who all chipped in to help set up the victory.