Hat-rick Hoddesdon thrash understrength Southgate.

Hoddesdon 3s secured their third win in a row, enjoying a comfortable first home match at a sunny and picturesque Roydon against a nine-man Southgate Adelaide team.

Captain Aidan McElligott won the toss and elected to field looking to use Hoddesdon’s strong bowling attack to restrict Southgate to a low score. Hoddesdon’s opening pair of Max Murray and Riley Hagger proceeded to cause the Southgate batsmen problems from the first over. The desired early break through came in the second over when Hagger moved one away to bowl Wilson. Murray then bowled Hammond three overs later to leave Southgate two down for only seven runs.

Terry Savanhu and Joe Duke came on as first change and Savanhu’s pace was far too much for Southgate as he took wickets in each of his first two overs. Pete Draisey then allowed McElligott to field the ball at slip with McElligott running out Truscott as the batsmen attempted a single that never looked on. His departure left Southgate in desperate trouble on 22-5. Southgate then resorted to trying to attack the spin of Steve and Joe Duke resulting in a wicket each thanks to solid catches from Tom Grover and Riley Hagger respectively. Southgate ended all out for 63 when Dave Thorne held onto a firmly hit drive at mid-off, off the bowling of Hagger.

Following the tea interval, Tom Grover and Dave Thorne were sent out to open the Hoddesdon reply and after an initial slow start both batsmen found the boundary in the sixth over as the score moved swiftly to 25. Thorne was dismissed the next over LBW off the bowling of Mohammed for 15 bringing Max Murray to the crease. Murray hogged the strike making 9, out of a partnership of 10, before he was caught behind off Mohammed.

With the score at 36-2, only 28 more runs were needed when Rich Youngman joined Grover in the middle. Against some erratic slow bowling and accurate spin, the pair scored slowly aware that only a few runs were needed with plenty of overs remaining. The pair picked up the pace as they neared the victory target successfully reaching it with Grover surviving the only scare, a caught and bowled chance, near the end. Grover finished 23 not out and Youngman 10 not out.

The 3s will now host Ware 2s next week looking to make it four wins in a row for the first time in ten years.