The Rob Walters Show

On Saturday 18th July, Hoddesdon 1st team made the much anticipated away trip to flitwick. Having set the alarm for the crack of dawn the passports were packed and the team headed to Heathrow Terminal 5 for the long haul flight across the country. They immediately hit a problem when the transport was too small meaning they had to cram themselves in and George had to leave his kit with the baggage handlers.

Nevertheless we arrived at flitwick with ample time ready to get the season back on track after a couple of turbulent weeks.

Having lost the toss flitwick decided to bat on what looked like a good batting track. 10 overs in this decision seemed a good one with flitwick piling on the runs without the loss of a wicket. A few chances were put down much to the frustration of Thorne and Davis who were running in giving their all. Bill Thorne in particular looked to be suffering from jet lack after a boundary misfield meant his hat was viciously thrown across the outfield. Hoddesdon need a wicket with the opener passing a very classy 50. Some rumours were swirling that Walters was going to turn to brown for some pace and bounce however Davis managed to get another over and produced the breakthrough. This was a massive wicket and everyone could see this.
Duke managed to snaffle the other opener as he picked out Todd in the deep. Hoddesdon felt the tide was changing and after some tight spells the pressure told with a superb run out by Sam Davis. This was lunch with the game tightly balanced and it seemed the banana split spurned on Hoddesdon after the break. Walters and duke from either end started to turn the game in Hoddesdon favour. Ashley leat on his debut had particularly good chat in the field always being in the batsmans ear despite having feet for hands in the slips. A highlight being the flitwick batsman asking for leg then middle with Leat asking duke to bowl at off stump as he didn't know where that was.

Anyway sorry for the tangent back to cricket.
Hoddesdon were picking up steady wickets with the spinners bowling and despite some late hitting flitwick posted 209. The bowling after lunch was exemplary with George picking up 3 wickets and rob Walters picking up 5 in a delightful spell of medium pace bowling.

At the change of innings the message from inside the camp was to dig in and work hard to knock these runs off and get back to winning ways

The innings started in solid fashion with leat and Walters putting away the bad ball.
With Dave thornes words ringing in his ears from the early days in bills garden Rob was continuing to play straight. That turned out to be a little too straight as leat was run out at the non strikers end.

This brought Davis to the crease who has good memories of playing flitwick after his previous hundred early in the season. However history did not repeat itself as Davis was caught early on down leg side. This brought together the 2 men in form sturdy and Walters. Confidence was clearly high with those waiting to bat with Nathan mead providing the entertainment keeping everyone up to date on the trolley situation at waitrose.

Walters and sturdy carried on exactly where they left off hitting the bowlers to all areas of the ground. There remarkable form taking both past 50 again chasing down these runs in aesthetically pleasing fashion. However, Todd managed to get out for 56 meaning Anthony highs came to the crease with Hoddesdon needing 50 to win in a seemingly dominant position if we played good cricket. This is exactly what Higgs did bringing his vast levels of experience to the situation. Walters began to get a little twitchy as Higgs was scoring a little quickly so put his foot on the gas to pass another remarkable hundred in was it turning out to the season of dreams for the young man.

After a great victory Hoddesdon returned home with 30 points and lots of air miles in their pocket.

Words by Shaun Brown