Hoddesdon 1st team continued in their winning ways on Saturday with a comprehensive win against bottom-of the-table Leverstock Green. Batting first on losing the toss, Leverstock Green recovered from 31-3 to a total of 204 -9 off their 60 overs. All of the bowlers maintained control to keep the opposition on a tight rein, with spinners Harry Mason (3-64 off 16 overs) and Rob Walters (3-52 off 11) also getting among the wickets. After Walters (65 off 52 balls) and his fellow opener Jamie Curtis (76 off 65) had put on 126 for the first wicket in 17 overs, it was plain sailing. The prolific Jayden Broodryk took his tally of League runs to 460 for twice out with 38 not out off 50 balls as Hoddesdon came home at a canter to win by seven wickets, overtaking the opposition’s score in 32 overs. Nic Pothas, the former Hoddesdon player and the current Middlesex coach who has also coached the Sri Lankan and West Indies cricket teams, looked on approvingly.

The performance of the day, however, came in the 3rd team’s demolition of Harpenden who were bowled out for 35. Amidst the mayhem, Hoddy new recruit Gajen Balakrishnan wrote himself into the club’s record books by producing the stunning figures of 8 wickets for just 5 runs by virtue of bowling straight. Seven of his victims were clean bowled.

Elsewhere the 2nd and 4th teams came unstuck. The 2nd team batting first on a spiteful wicket at Eversholt mustered only 114 but still sit at the top of Division 3. At Holtwhites Trinibis, Mark Brooks’s 57 was the only score of note in Hoddesdon’s 122, a total that was overhauled by the hosts while losing 6 wickets. Another 30 runs might have made the difference.