Joe Joyce sets Sawbridgeworth club record of league runs for a season
Sawbridgeworth ended their topsy-turvy Saracens Hertfordshire League, Division One campaign on a high as they defeated Old Elizabethans by three wickets at Town Fields on Saturday (September 7), writes Richard White.
Chasing 242 to win, they secured their first batting-second win of the season thanks to another remarkable performance from Joe Joyce.
He began the day on 849 runs, needing 101 to break Danny Wilson’s club record of league runs set in 2011. With the scores level he was on 97, before hitting a six to not only win the game but also move top of the list and become the first Sawbo player since Wilson to score four centuries in the same league campaign.
Joyce dominated his side’s run chase, hitting an unbeaten 103 off 126 balls. He was joined in the division’s top-10 run scorers by Rehman Ahmed, who finished on 544 after contributing 31 to a second-wicket stand of 109 – the pair’s fifth century partnership of the season.
Rob Sanders contributed 34 to finish on 454 to secure ninth place on the list before falling lbw to Tom Garraway (4-54) as Sawbo slipped from 174-2 to 221-7.
Matt Billings then struck 14no off nine balls before Joyce struck the winning runs as they reached 247-7 with 19 balls to spare.
Earlier, the visitors’ last three wickets added 101 runs as they recovered from 140-7 to 241 all out, with Dominic Miles (58) and Charlie Busby (33) adding 80 for the eighth wicket.
Sayed Aziz took 4-35 – his best figures for the club – to finish with 24 wickets for the season, one behind Max Osborne (2-43) and four shy of George Kenny (1-57), who trapped Avi Shah lbw in his second over to end the season with 28 scalps.
Charlie Rudkin (2-56) and Alan Ison (1-5) took the other wickets to fall as Sawbridgeworth ended their season with eight wins and eight defeats - plus two rained off - to finish fourth, just nine points off promotion.
Their opponents, who were top on July 20, were relegated after a run of six successive defeats.
Sawbo’s second team ended a run of 10 successive defeats as they finished their 5B campaign with a 10-wicket thrashing of their Langleybury counterparts to secure their survival.
Nick Dale returned career-best figures of 6-29 as they skittled their relegated hosts for 74 in 30.1 overs. Alfie Burrell (2-21) and Sam Shemwell (2-11) took the other wickets to fall.
While Andrew Dongworth did not add to his season’s tally of 34, he still ended as the division’s leading wicket taker.
Charlie Mann (30no) and Kieran Morgan (32no) needed only eight overs to get Sawbo to 75 without loss as Harry Gale’s side finished eighth in the table, 46 points clear of the drop zone.
