Five under-14s help Bishop’s Stortford IV beat Thaxted in Tees Herts & Essex Border Cricket League
Youngster Conran Fleet took three late wickets to help Bishop’s Stortford IV beat Thaxted by four runs with two balls remaining in Tees Herts & Essex Border League, Division One on Saturday (July 13).
He was one of five under-14s in action for the hosts, the others being Byron Scott, Will Hutley, Sam Braund and Grace Gladen.
Stortford chose to bat first and posted a decent 179-4 from their 40 overs thanks to Fred Hussain (47) and Graeme Sumner (49no).
Thaxted made a good start to their reply before wickets fell regularly and they were left needing eight runs from the final over with the last pair batting.
And Stortford, who also included under-17 Ollie Banhidai and had a 40-year age gap between their oldest junior and youngest senior, secured the victory with a run out after Fleet’s fine spell.
The first team bagged 16 points from a winning draw at home to Hertford in the Saracens Hertfordshire League, Premier Division.
Batting first, the hosts had 52 on the board when they lost their first wicket before opener Sam Davis and Will Cutlan-Smyth put on 76 together.
Cutlan-Smyth was caught off the bowling of Tom Orchard soon after lunch for 36 and, three overs later, Davis was bowled by Adam Carlson for a well-made 71.
Joe Hawkins (36) and Ben Twohig (34) took the score to 188 in the 51st over before wickets fell at regular intervals with batsmen trying to move the score along.
Stortford were all out for 236 with three balls of their 60-over allocation remaining. Orchard ended with 5-61 and Carlson got 4-78.
Hertford made a strong start to the run chase and were 98 without loss after 25 overs at the tea interval.
The game changed when Simon Lindop trapped Max Lawrence lbw for 46 and, in his next over, bowled Hugh Cavener for 50.
Callum Sykes then took the wickets of Will Ray and Bailey Eustace to leave Hertford on 124-4.
After Twohig had visiting captain Benji Cowell stumped, Hertford needed 97 runs with five wickets left.
The away side opted to shut up shop and, despite their best efforts, Stortford could only take two further wickets as just 14 runs were added in the final 20 overs.
Lindop finished with 2-33 off 14 over, Sykes took 2-7 off five, Dom Clutterbuck claimed 2-46 from 20 and Twohig got 2-42 off 17.
The table-topping second team secured a four-wicket success at their Hertford counterparts in Division 2B.
They won the toss and removed their opponents for 135 in the 42nd over, with Ollie Ray (71) getting the bulk of the runs.
Joe Bunyan got 3-26, Hugh Williams took 2-1 off five balls and James Frans snared 2-21 while there was a wicket apiece for Harry Pigram, James Wollerson and Joseph de Souza.
Stortford found themselves 64-4 in reply, but Will Dommett (38) and Hugh Williams (31no) helped guide them to 136-6 in 39.2 overs.
The third team produced an excellent bowling performance as they won by five wickets at Hockerill in the HEBL Premier Division.
The visitors dismissed their hosts for 120 as Will Lambert, Arthur Edwards and Patrick Ainsworth-Ledwidge all took three wickets.
A Waheed took 3-17 in the reply, but Stortford got home with a quick and unbeaten 35 from skipper Ruan Premadasa.
