Putman Cup returns to Northchurch

Jed was always keen on seeing the batsman give it a good whack and he would have been on his feet applauding as Garraway hit the winning boundary on Sunday at Berkhamsted.

Northchurch had been put in the field by the home captain and had early wickets as Chapman and D James knocked over the top two cheaply. Berkhamsted's three best batters each made fifty but scored the runs relatively slowly and got out soon after reaching the milestones.

Nine Northchurch bowlers were used and each played his part with a wicket or tight spell to restrict the score to 187.

The convivial crowd of Berkhamsted's Vice Presidents' annual luncheon party, bubbling on the decking with red wine smiles, were given cause for optimism as Northchurch were reduced to 20 for three. However, the duo of Tom and Joel would form the rest of the afternoon's entertainment, mainly to the delight of the Northchurch supporters, with an unbeaten partnership of 168 to finish the game.

Gaz was naturally the aggressor, while Joel rotated, though with a flurry of well struck boundaries, including the shot of the day - a sublime cover drive up the hill for four, the U16 overtook the seasoned pro. This only served to increase the run rate as Tom 'couldn't have that' and a succession of Berkhamsted bowlers failed to find an answer to his stroke play.

After an unbeaten match winning partnership of 168, it was hard to choose the man of the match, so it should be awarded equally to Joel (71*) and Tom, who's 86* took him past 6,000 1st XI runs.

It was a great honour for the team to be presented with the Putman Cup by Dennis Atkin's who noted in his shrewd analysis of the match that Northchurch had 'murdered' Berkhamsted. Our deep thanks go to Ian Putman for hosting us so brilliantly and laying on beer and burgers after the game. It was another fitting memorial to preserve the memory of a great Northchurch clubman, Jed Putman.