Hoddesdon Sink in the Bay....

Saturday 5th July saw Hoddesdon 1st XI Welcome Botany bay in a top of the table clash at Lowfield. Hoddesdon went into this game riding the wave of last weeks win over West Herts and were looking to make it their 3rd in a row.

Having won the toss Botany Bay decided to bat at a hard flat lowfield. Hoddesdon’s bowling attack lead by Sam Davies started positively as they tested the Botany batsman early on. Some majestic stroke play from BB opener Ben Howageg was short lived as he had his feathers ruffled by a short ball from Davies which was caught behind by keeper Rhys Jones. Davies was soon joined at the other end by spinner Jamie Curtis in his first game back since injuring his knee ligaments in a Zorb attached over the winter.

The Curtis / Davies duo then paired up to claim Hoddesdon’s 2nd wicket as Kasey Harris was dismissed by a stunning diving catch at 2nd slip by Curtis. Throughout his spell Davies challenged the BB bowling attach with a mix full and short ball. Some extremely good fielding also enabled HCC to restrict BB batsman from Scoring. Davies finished with 3 for 65 from 18 overs.

The pick of Hoddesdon bowlers was spinner George Duke with his mix of flight and drift. Duke played havoc with the BB middle order picking up 4 big wickets – one of which was caught by overseas Josh Bailey running backwards diving over his shoulder. Seamer Bill Thorne also managed to trouble the BB batman with pace and bounce and picked up the vital wicket of overseas Tim Richards for 54. Thorne ended with figures of 3 for 15 from 7.2 overs.

Hoddesdon bowled BB all out for 209.

Hoddesdon got off to a sticky start, opener Rob Jones fell for a golden duck and Captain Rob Walters was joined at the crease by Sam Davis. Both Walter's and Davis began in their usual fashion, punishing the bad ball and targeting the short Lowfield Boundaries. Both batsman looked fluent at the crease and were unfazed by the BB attach, until Davis' patient wore out and he was caught on 47.

Walter’s continued to chase the under par target and soon clocked up a half century. Walters fell for 55 and Hoddesdon’s middle order were set the task of chasing down the BB total. BB opted for a spin / medium pace combo and the Hoddesdon batsman found it extremely difficult to score, and before long the middle order had collapsed to 155-8. Before long BB were into Hoddesdon's tail and claimed the final wickets of Tyler Burrows and Bill Thorne. Hoddesdon were all out for 185.

Word by Rhys Jones