Life in the old Dogg

Stortford skipper, Mel Hussain, decided to stick Northchurch in on a pitch that had been under covers all night but was otherwise hard and flat. After a watchful start, Prideaux was surprised by some extra bounce from a very tall opening bowler and caught at gully. Suckling joined Hobley and both rode out the early seam movement to secure a foothold before milking the change bowlers at an increasing rate. Together they brought up the hundred in the 17th over and looked assured, until Suckling ran past a leg break and was stumped for an excellent 46.

Garraway, having stood down his night watchman, took to the crease, and soon began crunching drives through extra cover. Hobley, meanwhile, continued to play under his eyes and put away the bad ball in a risk free display of batsmanship. The second consecutive hundred partnership was brought up in 104 balls, just four balls faster than the first, and with Hobley contributing a round 45 to each.

When Hobley brought up a brilliant century from 120 balls, with 13 boundaries and a six to his name, Northchurch were sitting pretty on 230/2, with seven overs to go and casting an eye towards 300. However Stortford demonstrated that when the ball was bowled in the right area, it was not so easy to score and Garraway nibbled behind for a run-a-ball 54. Stortford managed three more wickets in the final five overs of the innings, but Northchurch maintained a steady rate and the damage had already been done. The home team's bowling unit were confident of defending 279.

And so they should have been as, after tea, Darren James produced one of his finest spells to reduce the visitors to 16/4 before rain took the players off to watch the cup final. James had the ball on a string, and five slips in place to pounce on any batsmen error. And soon they came as first OJ at second gully, then Saf at first slip, had throat height opportunities which they gladly took. An LBW in between had made Stortford's enormous task seem insurmountable. They would surely need a massive innings from their own veteran, Mel Hussain, but Daz was up to the task and trapped the erstwhile pro LBW first ball.

Big black clouds then dumped wet stuff on the Meadow for an hour and half but the pitch remained playable under the covers. On resuming play, DJ wrapped up an excellent five fer, going for a miserly 7 runs in seven overs in the process.

After the rain, the pitch had quickened up and the ball came on the bat nicely. With bowlers now struggling to control the wet ball, the run rate began to climb, with Fred Hussain looking particularly comfortable, and there was a sense that the revised total of 179 in 32 overs was more achievable.

Full of confidence, Hobley joined the attack, and soon removed the dangerous number 4. But Stortford were not done and continued to attack. Wacey, batting at 8, gave cause for concern by picking up a lovely lofted drive over extra cover before taking 10 off a Saf Khan over. Khan, however, got his revenge by throwing one wide down off side, beating the charging batsman, for Suckling to finish a smart stumping.

After that, it felt like the total would not be seriously threatened and Northchurch were content to contain until a mistake was made. U14 Mays, having bowled a lovely spell of leggies, batted nicely to get his side another batting point before falling, as the last man, trying to hit an Ollie Johnson length ball over the top.

The miserable weather in which the game was concluded could not take away from a complete team performance in which Northchurch batted, fielded and bowled brilliantly. Stortford were excellent guests and the game was played in top spirit. We look forward to the return fixture later in the summer.