Hitchin IV's too strong for Stevenage V's

On a very hot Saturday, Stevenage V's were facing a tough test against Hitchin IV's, a team we faced last season, who only lost 1 game. Hitchin won the toss and decided to bat first. A good opening spell from Luke Allen and Alan Greenall which went unrewarded (couple of dropped catches and LBW's not given), it wasn't until the 20th over that Stevenage picked up their first wicket. Jon Barton broke the 109 opening partnership with his first wicket of the season, caught by Sam Bates. A flurry of wickets then fell, reducing Hitchin to 129-5. Spin at both ends was working for the V's, with Jon Barton picking up 3 wickets (8-2-20-3) and Andy Elder 2 (8-2-39-2), 3 of them stumpings by Andy Glowdansky. Adam Prior then got the 6th wicket, but Hitchin managed to put on some good runs at the end to finish on 209-6.

The V's were chasing 210 to win this match which seemed unlikely from the outset. Ian Welch and Sam Bates continued their form from last week, by seeing out the first 10 overs and putting on 40 odd. Sam was the first one to go, being bowled by a ball that kept very low, and Jim McDowall followed in the same fashion. Simon Wood got a duck, before Ian and Andy Glowdansky managed to put on 30. Ian then fell and the score was 84-4. There was then a collapse of wickets, which saw us reduced to 105-9 a few overs later. This was the end of the game as Max Peebles was unable to bat, due to getting injured early on in Hitchin's innings. Ian Welch (31), Sam Bates (23) and Andy Glowdansky (23), were the only batsman who got into double figures for the V's.