Hemel clash with Reed goes to the wire in Herts League

Hemel's sides were all in action last weekend.

Hemel Hempstead CC firsts fell to defeat at home to Reed on Saturday but it took until the last ball of the match to decide the winner.

The result saw Hemel slip down to third in the Championship, six points behind Shenley Village who beat bottom side Luton Town & Indians and on the same points as Flitwick who beat Dunstable.

Hemel batted first and although losing Brett Penny in the first over, 68 from Tom Elborn and 39 from Hem Ilangaratne saw them on their way to 198-6 with the dismissal of Jack Doodson (26) in the 45th over but Billy Jones (49*) and Matt Parkins (35*) saw them climb up to 251-6 after their 50 overs.

Although Robert Lankester (76) kept Reed in the frame, once he was dismissed by Nick Hodgins (3 - 42) Hemel seemed to be on the way.

They had not counted on keeper Sean Tidey who went for the win. He hit 57* in 32 balls with five fours and three sixes including two sixes in the last over when Reed needed 15 to win, and did it for the loss of nine wickets.

Hemel II were on the end of a drubbing from top of the table Old Finchleians but still managed to remain in second place in Div. 3B, four points ahead of London Colney and with the last three games against sides in the bottom half of the division.

For Hemel 23 from Suren Perera was the highest score and Will Langley was the only other score of 20 or more.

Stan Hayden claimed the only wicket that Hemel took early in the Old F's innings.

Hemel III and Welwyn Garden City’s III's took advantage of the directives from the Herts League about the hot weather and decided to make their game a 40 rather than 50 over match.

Afterwards Hemel were wondering why they didn't do it more often as they scored more runs in 40 overs than they normally do in 50. Philip Smith led from the top with 78 while Nikil Singh made 38, Sam Wheeler 37 and Scott Radcliffe 30 and skipper Ram Hussain kept it all together with 51*, the total of 285-5 the sort of score to be defended, even on the high scoring Nursery Ground.

In the end, 38 from Premier batter Dan Cope was the best reply from WGC and for Hemel Alfie Bordoley span his way to 3 - 43 and Freddie Lowe cleaned out the tail with 2 - 7.

There was a narrow two-run defeat for Hemel IV but they stay top of Div. 9A because nearest challengers Bamville and Southgate Compton both lost as well.

There are three games to go in the league season and they’re 15 points above Bamville and 28 above Southgate.

Hemel had Hatfield Hyde down at 61 - 7 but their skipper Luke Jeffery (46*) and no. 9 U-16 Nathan Davies (23*) put on 58 to claw them up to 119 - 7. Despite losing Mike Samuels early on Matt Petchell (50) and Steve Smith (21) saw Hemel up to 73 - 2.

It all then fell away as Hemel were dismissed for 117 to lose by two runs.

Hemel V were able to play a friendly against St Albans V last week at home so made sense to have the reverse of that fixture the following week over at St. Albans.

It was another victory for Hemel who made a good start with Colin Willetts (33) and Teddy Butler (24) putting on 63 for the first wicket.

On the way down the order Jim Langley added 28 and Harry Howard ended up not out on 23.

That made it 151 to defend for Hemel and sharp fielding proved to be the key as three St Albans batsmen were run out, including their two openers. Add onto those a couple of wickets each for Matt Scears (2 - 12) and Tayyab Sadiq (2 -21) and Hemel achieved victory by bowling out St. Albans for 135 in 30 overs.