Tough season continues for Hemel Town

Hemel returned home after a couple of games on the road but there was no return to winning ways in the Saracens Herts League Championship against Flitwick.

Flitwick, who had beaten Hemel in the reverse fixture earlier in the season, won the toss and stuck Hemel in. It transpired that Hem Ilangaratne was the main man for Hemel as he opened the batting, scored 89, and was the penultimate man out going for a quick single to keep the strike.

The rest of Hemel’s batting failed to give him the necessary support, a quick-fire 47 from Jack Doodson aside, as Hemel subsided to 203 all out in 56 overs.

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Flitwick started off in reply putting on 62 for their first wicket. A couple of strikes by Jack Doodson (2-82) saw Hemel back in but Nadeera Nawela (71*) and Harry Thurstance ((70*) put on an undefeated 142 to win the game for Flitwick quite comfortably.

A much weakened Hemel II side slid to an eight wicket defeat by Bushey in Division Two B which keeps Hemel at the foot of the division. They won the toss and chose to bat but nobody really got going – 25 from Neil Morgan and 21 from Will Langley the best at the top. Further down 21* from Dave Jenkins and 22 from Ryan Wilson managed to get Hemel up to 155-9 from their 53 overs.

The target proved no great hassle for Bushey as they saw themselves to 156 for the loss of just two wickets in 41 overs. Cameron Hutcheon took the wickets with 2-28 from 15 overs.

Harpenden III away was going to be a tough game for Hemel III in Division Four B. What was not known was that Hemel III would end up getting bowled out for one of their lowest scores in Saturday league cricket.

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Harpenden batted first and put on 243-8 with Sam Jones leading their batting with 80.

Anjam Khan (13) and Ben Bradley (3) opened the batting for Hemel III and made it to 14. Then the rot set in and the next 10 wickets fell for just 18 runs. Mike Smith managed to bowl 18 balls and take four wickets for six runs.

Hemel IVs thought they were in with the chance of a win at the Nursery Ground.

Keeping things in the family, dad Jim Langley had struck a magificent 133* to put Hemel IV up to 290-7 having been put into bat by bottom side Letchworth IV. It was the first century for Hemel IVs since 2013.

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Having got the score Hemel then set about getting the wickets to win the game. Skipper Tony Linfoot got his best bowling return for the club with 5-20 from 12 overs, Nick Benson took 3-18 but at the end of the Letchworth innings Mike Fernando (6*) and U15 young cricketer Bill Stewardson (14*) got together and played out 18 overs to deny Hemel their win and sneak a draw.