3's earn draw in close game

The 3's were away at St Albans 4's and the skipper won the toss and decided to bat.

James Thompson (50) and Piers Jenkins (18) opened the batting for the Village and were in the mood not to give their wicket away as recent games have seen wickets fall regularly in the first couple of overs. It was slow going as the wicket proved to be quiet slow and the opening bowlers of St Albans were keeping a good line. The batsman were not getting value for their shots and it was evident that this would be a low scoring game. 15 overs had passed and the Village were on 26-0 with both the skipper and Piers only managing to pick up singles and the odd 2. The score reached 41 off 19 overs when Piers was the first to go chipping one back to the bowler. Farzan Dulker Nain (4) was next in and after hitting a trademark 4 was bowled. Mohamed Salahudeen (7) was next in to support the skipper but he only lasted a few overs before being caught and bowled. Dan Penny (2) was next in and he was the 3rd batsman to offer up a chance to the bowler which was taken to leave the Village 64-4 off 26 overs. Dave Flavell (8) was next in and tried to stay in with the skipper to set the visitors a target by being positive but he was stumped. Next man in was debutant Paul Simpson (6) and looked solid at the crease and also hit a rare boundary in the innings before being bowled to leave the Village 100-6 off 34 overs. Andrew Godfrey (11) was next in and he and the skipper continued to score and run hard to pick up valuable runs. Godders was then caught and Tommy Smith (0) joined the skipper at the crease. The skipper brought up his 50 thanks to a rare 3 but he was bowled the first ball of the penultimate over trying to look for more runs which brought Dave Knight (2) to the crease although he departed the same over as he was also bowled. Chalky Cara (0*) joined Tommy for the last over but Tommy was out caught as the Village finished on 128 all out in 41.3 overs.

Andrew Godfrey (0-15) and Tommy Smith (0-10) opened the bowling for the Village and started well with Tommy unlucky not to pick up a wicket as the skipper dropped a tough chance in the slips. Both bowled 5 overs before Dan Penny (0-35) and Dave Flavell (4-33) replaced the pair. Both were bowling nicely and the pressure was increasing on the batsman as they were also finding it tough to score on the track. Dan was unfortunate not to get 2 wickets in one over as 2 chances were shelled but Legs got the first wicket thanks to a catch from Paul Simpson who gathered the ball in at the 3rd or 4th attempt. After 20 overs, St Albans were 50-1 and needed to go at over 4 an over to reach the target. Dan and Legs continued to bowl well and on another day Dan might have picked up a few wickets. Legs got the 2nd wicket bowling the number 3 batsman before picking up 2 more in his penultimate and last over of his spell, one was bowled and the other courtesy of a good catch from Tommy Smith to remove the opener before his 50. Dave Knight (0-11) and Chalky Cara (3-9) bowled the last couple of overs and Chalky first over yielded 2 wickets thanks to another catch from Tommy and one from Legs. In his final over and final ball he bowled the number 8 batsman and the innings had finished on 120-7 off their 38 overs.

A draw in the end in tricky conditions with the skipper finally getting a decent score to help the side out to post a total. All the bowlers bowled well with Dave Flavell the pick with his 4 wickets although Chalky's 2 overs produced 3 wickets to give the skipper something to think about in the next game. A win was possible here but too many chances went down at crucial stages but nevertheless a decent game was played in good spirits.