Stevenage fielded a decent side for the trip to Hemel Hempstead and it was just as well, because they came up against eight of Hemel's regular 1st XI. Captain Barry Turner got things of to a good start by winning the toss on a day when the temperature topped 30 degrees. Carr (24) and Hann (13) opened the batting and made use of the short boundary on one side of wicket, scoring at 6 an over for the first 8 overs. Magafas made 23 and Sodhi a composed 53 to ensure a competitive score would be achieved. Stewart Duff came to the crease for his first innings in 2 years at the loss of Magafas, but after only a couple of overs he was timing the ball well in making 25 runs. Turner replaced Duff at the wicket and left nobody in any doubt that he was a man on a mission. His first scoring shot was a crunching cover drive for 4, which he followed up with 5 more 4's and a 6, bringing up his 50 from just 34 balls and providing an important impetus to the innings, enabling 246 to be set as the target.
The Hemel reply was preceded by another sumptuous tea. Under ordinary circumstances the Hemel teas, which included, pasta, hot dogs, doughnuts and icecream, would have walked away with tea of the season, but they were narrowly beaten by the Chipperfield spread in Round 3 of the same competion.
Hemel's victory was set up by their opener who smashed his way to a 50 in just 31 balls, before eventually falling to Richard Hamilton for 68. He was the first of three quick wickets for Hamilton whose spell put Stevenage back in with a shout. His third wicket came courtesy of a one handed catch by Russell Hann who was placed in at short cover, not so much to take a catch as to provide an obstruction against which the batsman might hit the ball. At least that was theory, the other 10 Stevenage fielders were working to, although not apparently Hann. The new batsman leant forward and played a hard handed forward defensive at a well pitched ball and the ball shot forward towards Hann who for the first half of the ball's flight was completely rooted to the spot and unmoved. At this point, everything seemed to take on the appearance of a Matrix style slow motion special effect as the ball moved seemingly inexorably towards the ground half a yard in front of Hann's right foot. However, to the dismay of the batsman and the disbelieving joy of the Stevenage fielders, Hann displayed Ninja like reflexes to claim a catch half an inch from the ground. "Not bad for an old bloke with knees that are knackered" was the comment from Hann during the celebrations, to which there could be no argument. Unfortunately for Stevenage, despite a good spell from Ashley Bayes and two wickets from Kev. Fisher, who took his weekends tally of wickets to 9, Hemel made their way with few further scares to victory with 7 overs to spare.
MoM - Barry Turner
Stevenage march into the 4th round with a good win at Chipperfield. On a good batting track at a picturesque ground on a beautiful English Summer day Chipperfield won the toss and batted. The Stevenage opening bowlers of Neil Beer and Lucious Fulgence bowled supremly well in tandem, with Skipper Barry Turner picking the perfect ends for them. Fulgence bowled his fast in duckers with good control and completed his spell in one go finishing with figures of 10/2/37/1. Beer bowling a combination of away swing; aided by the slope of the pitch and gentle breeze; and nip back seamers; up the slope; bowled a miserly opening spell of 6/1/9/1 and Chipperfield were stuck at 37-2 after 15 overs.
It was at this stage of the game that Barry Reid (Stevenage's scorer) claimed that he was about to put a call into Mulder and Scully, because not only were Stevenage bowling and fielding unfathomably well, but a UFO skimmed across the square at head high and landed at Ben Leet's feet. Unperturbed Bleachy picked up the object and propelled it into a gaggle of old ladies on a bench. Those that were sleeping woke briefly and one reportedly dropped a stitch but their disruption was short lived.
Joel Hippolyte replaced Beer and picked up the third wicket in his first over, eventually finishing with figures of 6/1/19/1 and Ashley Bayes, although being targeted by the Chipperfield batters who were determined to break free; picked up an important wicket and returned figures of 5/0/33/1. Kevin Fisher with 6/1/22/0 also maintained control, but Chipperfield's middle order responded well and allowed them by means of a mixture of good shots and agricultural hitting to reach 232 for 5 from their 50 overs.
Tea is normally ignored at this point, but in this instance it won't be. They were gorgeous, there was loads of it and this match report writer has not got a good enough grasp of the English language to do them justice, surfice to say everyone was bloated and very happy at the resumption.
The start of Stevenage's reply matched the quality of the teas, with 57 on the board in the 9th over. Graeme Duff was launching the bowlers out of the ground. The opening partnership was broken with 60 on the board in the 11th over, Carr (19) departing
after missing a full toss, but Albert Sodhi came to the crease and supported Duff as he continued to pummel the bowling. At the start of the innnings the car park at the far end of the ground was packed with vehicles, but at Duffs dismissal for 67, it was deserted except for
the occassional dusty old tumbleweed blowing by. Duff's final tally for the day was seven 4's and three 6's, with each one scoring direct hits. Two bonnets, a windscreen and a smiling local garage owner was the end result. The rest of the Stevenage chase was built around
the innings of Sodhi who made a composed 54 before being inexplicably runout. Other good contributions coming from Ashley Bayes (24 from 31 balls), Turner (22) and to finish the game with 3 overs left, Ben (Bleach) Leet (22no).
MoM - Graeme Duff