Hoddesdon chop wood at Chorley....

Hoddesdon CC arrived in West Hertfordshire to take on a struggling Chorleywood team with Hoddy looking to build on their excellent start to the season. Skipper Walters won the toss and invited Chorleywood to bat first. The opening bowling partnership of Davis and Mead settled in to their lines and lengths early but the pitch did not seem as responsive as usual Chorleywood wickets.

Hoddesdon’s fielding also seemed to be slightly down on previous performances with a few opportunities being missed. Davis however did strike early as he removed Rose and Aspinall with a couple of sharp yorkers. Further dismissals did not follow swiftly as the left handed Lye and his partner Smithson played themselves in. Lye in particular played some very attractive drives on his way to a fluent 30.

The introduction of spin into the attack changed the momentum of the innings, George Duke removed Lye with a slightly fortunate caught and bowled and then went onto bowl a terrific spell as he recorded figures of 4-27 in his 10 overs. Walters smelling blood brought back the pace of Davis and then Mead as he looked to blow away the tail. Mead took two wickets both lbw in consecutive deliveries and it looked as if Hoddesdon would bowl out Chorleywood for under 110. However, Chorleywood’s lower order player Ryan Evans had different plans as he dictated play through the back end of the innings. He went on to make a valuable 46 before his dismissal to the medium pace of Martin Brown signalled the end of the innings with Chorleywood posting 178 from 45.2 overs.

At the halfway stage the players enjoyed an excellent tea with a wide range of sandwiches and cakes available. The chicken tikka sandwich filling seemed a favourite with the Hoddy boys. The bowlers in particular filled their boots as they hoped their work for the day was finished. Walters seemed relatively content with his teams bowling performance, though he would have liked to have killed off the Chorleywood tail more efficiently.

Walters and Jones kicked off the Hoddesdon reply in attractive fashion. Jones taking a liking to the bowling of Rice as he bludgeoned numerous boundaries, most of them to the leg side. Walters also looked in impressive knick before he chopped on to the economical bowling of Bushnell for 35. This brought Davis to the crease and he begun to construct an effective partnership with Jones. Jones batted extremely well for his 59 and was very disappointed to be caught at mid-off off the bowling of Evans. This wicket seemed to give hope to Chorleywood and Ryan Evans began to hit some threatening areas. He removed overseas player Josh Bailey for a golden duck and then took the wicket of Davis. This left Hoddesdon on 135-4 with 44 runs still required for victory and Sturdy and Brown at the crease.

Skipper Walters seemed slightly worried as he knew his sides lower order has not been used much this season. The experience head of Martin Brown knew it was vital to see off Evans’ spell with no more wickets falling he therefore took a cautious approach when facing the opening bowler. Having seen off Evans’ 10 over spell Sturdy and Brown knocked off the rest of the runs needed with minimal fuss. Sturdy made a useful 28* as he saw Hoddesdon over the line with 14.4 overs still remaining.

Hoddesdon have now won the first 4 league games of the season and are sitting pretty on top of the table. However in the post-match talk skipper Walters and coach Brown stressed that there is still a lot of hard work to do and much to improve on as Hoddesdon were perhaps a little under par. Walters concluded that the signs were good for Hoddy as they completed a comfortable victory even when not producing their best cricket on the day. The boys now look forward to returning to Lowfield to take on Langleybury next week.

Words by James Mead.