3's lose to top of the league

The 3's were away at top of the table Harpenden 5's.

The skipper won the toss on a cloudy day and decided to insert the oppo.

George Leggett (1-14) and Andrew Godfrey (1-23) opened the bowling and in his first over Godders had got a wicket thanks to a brilliant catch by Chalky at gully. It got better for the Village when George had the number 1 batsman caught by Joe Sheridan. The Harpenden innings was rebuilt by the number 3 & 4 batsmen who started to open up and hit the bad balls away. Tommy Smith (1-18) had replaced George and he picked up the next wicket to fall courtesy of a catch by George Leggett. Dan Penny (0-22) had replaced Godders and was not getting any luck as a few chances were shelled. Chalky Cara (3-49) and Matt Hawkes (3-14) were the next two to have a go at the Harpenden line up. Chalky got the first of his wickets as the number 5 bat was stumped by Farzan Dulker Nain trying to use his feet. Hawkesy was bowling nicely and was not going for many runs and that paid off with the next wicket to fall as James Thompson took a simple chance at mid off to get rid of the number 6 batsman. Then Chalky and Hawkesy got their teeth into the middle order with Chalky bowling the number 7 and also getting rid of the number 4 bat who had made 52 thanks to a caught and bowled with a forward roll at the end of his dive. Hawkesy got his other 2 wickets, bowling the number 8 & 9 batsman. At 130-9 the Village were hoping to wrap up the innings quickly but the number 10 and 11 stayed around to add a further 20 runs before Joe Sheridan (1-4) came on and with his 2nd ball had the number 10 caught by a superb catch in the deep by James Thompson who had to make up 20 yards to his left before jumping to catch the ball just in front of the boundary. 151 all out was a good effort from the Village bolwers against top of the league but it was going to be a tricky ask on a sticky wicket.

Piers Jenkins (6) and Joe Sheridan (8) opened the batting for the Village with 10 overs to face before tea. Joe hit two fours in one over before going for one more and was subsequently caught at first slip. Farzan Dulker Nain (12) was next man in and was soon in his stride hitting a couple of fours to keep on top of the run rate but he fell going for another big hit and was caught at point leaving the Village 26-2 after 6 overs. James Thompson (25) joined Piers at the crease and the first aim was to get to tea without losing anymore wickets which they manage to do. At 30-2 off 10 overs the Village knew a big partnership could see them through to the total. After tea Piers and James continued but within 2 overs Piers had gone caught in the covers. That brought Matt Hawkes (0) to the crease and he did not last long as he was bowled. Mohamed Salahudeen was next in and he did not last long as he guided a shot to 2nd slip for the easiest of chances, leaving the Village 36-5 and in real trouble. Dan Penny (51*) joined James at the crease and the pair were determined to stay in and try to build a partnership to bring the victory total in sight. It was slow going but the pair were able to stay in and pick up 1's and 2's to keep the scoreboard ticking over as well as finding the odd boundary. When drinks were taken after 25 overs the Village were 74-5 and needed roughly the same number of runs from 15 overs to win at just over 5 an over. The first ball after drinks and the skipper tried to cut one and got the thinest of bottom edges which was caught well by the keeper. Tommy Smith (7) joined Dan at the crease and the pair slowly moved the total on with Dan being the aggressor of the 2 with Tommy taking the singles to get Dan on strike. At 113-6, there was still a chance the Village could get the win but the 34th over proved very costly with 3 wickets falling in the over. First Tommy was caught in the covers, then Chalky Cara (0) followed next ball in identical fashion before George Leggett (0) was bowled. Andrew Godfrey (1) was last man in and he and Dan tried to get the Village closer to the target but after a suicidal run, Godders was run out and the Village had finished on 120.

Another disappointing batting display cost the Village the win as the bowlers did their job by restricting top of the table to 151 all out. Chalky Cara and Matt Hawkes got 6 wickets between them with Hawkesy being very economical. In the batting department, only James Thompson and Dan Penny showed any resistance with Dan scoring a well deserved 50 which on another day would have seen the Village through. We must improve our batting if we are to be nearer the top of the table rather than the bottom at the end of the season but there were still positives to take into the next game.