Hoddesdon sink Botany in the Lowfield Bay.

Saturday 6th May saw Hoddesdon 1st XI play host to Botany Bay at lowfield in the first of the limited overs games.

With Hoddesdon all set in their PJ's, skipper Rob Walters tickled the queens nose and won the toss opting to bat first on what looked like a fairly decent wicket for this early in the season.

Walters and newly promoted Jimmy "The Greek" Achillea started positively blazing the pink ball all round the freshly cut Lowfield. Both batsman's looked in fine form and dominated the The Bay attacked and at the 17th over Hoddesdon were 122 without loss, Walters with 62 and Achillea 54. Walters luck finally ran out when he was caught behind for 67.

Sam Davis joined Achillea at the crease and continued with the pace set by the opening pair. Davis looked to manipulate the ball into his areas and scored quickly putting The Bay fielders under lots of pressure.

Achillea was the next Hoddy batsman to fall, stepping back to pull a short ball which never got up and was bowled for 82 from 88 balls - his mature innings included 12 fours and 1 six.

Ross Clarke joined Davis at the crease and both batsman continued the pressure, running hard between the wicket. With some lovely laps, and stepping outside off stump and smashing the ball through mid wicket, Davis raced to 43 off 46 balls untill he was caught by Shawn Tuitt.

The flexible Ross Clarke batting at number 4 rather than his normal position 2, looked to enjoy the older ball, batted sensibly keeping the scoreboard ticking over and developing the platform the openers had set.

Overseas All Rounder Jayden Brookdryk playing his first game for Hoddesdon wasn't having much luck, he managed to twist his ankle running between the wicket and was then run out an over later for 6. Rob Jones was the next wicket to fall scoring 8 from 3 balls before he was bowled by Knight. Jamie Curtis soon followed for 4 form 6.

Martin Brown and Todd Sturdy kept the end of of the HCC innings rolling with both batsman scoring at just over a run a ball. At the end of the innings Hoddesdon finished on 315 for 7.

With a decent target on the board Hoddesdon took to the field and Captain Walters opted for Pace from both ends from Brookdryk and Davis. Both bowlers beat the bat early on and made it hard work for The Bay batsman to get off strike.

Brookdryk was the first strike having Gittens-Brown caught at first slip by Martin Brown. Brown himself then got in on the action claiming the scalps of 2 more Bay batsman. Skipper Walters managed to pick up the key wicket of Shawn Tuitt bowling the batsman for 46.

The real turning point of the game was the run out of Zawa Hussain. The injured Rob Jones chased a ball down to the fine leg boundary, diving and flicking the ball back to Thorne who let rip from 60m with a direct hit leaving Hussain well short of the crease. From this point The Bay batsman were struggling and the game slipped away.

Curtis had Muschamp LBW trying to sweep a full ball and Sam Davis came back for his 2nd spell clearing up the tail, 3 wickets in 1 over.

Next Week Hoddesdon are away to Sawbridgeworth.