On a warm perfect afternoon at the Green Matching won the toss and given a slightly green tinged pitch decided to field first. It was a good decision as the highly dangerous Rob Sanders was caught at point for 0 in the first over by Jonny Taylor off the bowling of Jason Green. Green and his opening partner Charlie Bass continued to bowl well and keep Hockerill under pressure. Tom Brady, the Hockerill skipper, looked good and hit 3 nice boundaries before he tried one too many and was bowled by Bass for 14.
With the also reliable Jagdeo going for 0 Hockerill were always in trouble. In truth Naveed who hit a powerful 46 and “Sid” Foster a determined 14 were the only other Hockerill batsman to get in to any degree .
After Green and Bass had finished their spells Paul Dawson and Simon Hartnell came in to the attack and finished off what had been started by the openers.
The bowlers finished with ….Bass 3-22 , Dawson 3-27 , Hartnell 2-20 and Green 2-42 as Hockerll were bowled out for 115 off just 32 of their 45 overs .
A bit of a wobble ensued at the start of the Matching innings as openers Graeme Bowerman and Tom Taylor were both bowled for 0 and 1 respectivley, leaving Matching on 1-2. This brought Jack Scantlebury and Simon Hartnell together and they put on an unbroken 115 at more than a run a ball , 92 of which were in boundaries, both batsman batted superbly to bring home Matching by 8 wickets in just the 21st over .
S.Naveed 1-23 and Sanders 1-27 were the pick of the Hockerill bowlers .
With Nazeing losing heavily at Ilford Catholics and Stansted losing at Birchanger, Matching’s lead extended to 60 points with just 4 games to go in the League campaign.
Matching are at home to Ilford this Saturday which promises to be a good game .