The Moor 1st team grab first win of the season in fine style

After losing the toss again, all the Boxmoor bowlers performed admirably with the wickets shared. The returning Sathaya Kajendran took care of both Abbots openers to claim 2-17 and skipper Richard Crowther finished things off with 2-15. Tight bowling from Adam Hills and Stan Harper in the middle overs, including two run outs, meant Abbots limped to 121 all out.

The Moor’s opening batters Aidan Pimm (63 not out) and David Coster (50) made light work of the target as they racked up a century partnership at a rate of more than 4.5 runs an over. Boxmoor achieved their victory in the 26th over for the loss of one wicket.

They are now looking forward to another home game this Saturday against Chipperfield Clarendon II, who are a point and one place above them in the Division 6B league table.

Boxmoor’s 2nds welcomed second-placed Holtwhites Trinibis III to Galley Hill looking to leapfrog them in the table. Once again the captain lost the toss and they were asked to bat. Nick Cottrell (48) started brightly and was scoring freely. On a very slow pitch with the ball keeping low, players were never really “in” and several batsmen got starts but were unable to kick on.

At drinks, they were 99-4 and relatively happy. Stan Williamson (35) helped the score along and a final flourish from 15-year-old Lloyd Larkins (22 not out) lifted Boxmoor to 183 – a competitive total given how the pitch was playing.

The Moor opted to start with the spin of Amit Mahajan (4-15) and it proved a good call as the Holtwhites batsmen failed to come to terms with the track as Mahajan and Jay Goodwin (2-19) bowled unchanged for 30 overs, reducing the opposition to 29-6 after 30 overs. Williamson (3-9) and Larkins (1-2) replaced the openers and finished the job off to complete a fine 143-run win after bowling out Holtwhites for a meagre 40.

The victory moved them back up to second in Division 10A as they look to consolidate when travelling to seventh-placed Chorleywood on Saturday.

On a sunny but windy Saturday afternoon, a strong Boxmoor III made the short trip to Queen’s School, Bushey, to take on table-topping West Herts 5ths.

After losing the toss, and being asked to field, Boxmoor made a flying start with Jamie Vincent-Jones picking up the West Herts opener with his second delivery. This set the tone as wickets tumbled regularly, including two good slip catches by captain Dan Webb, leaving West Herts in serious trouble at 29-7. But, the West Herts eighth wicket pair proceeded to turn the game on its head by adding 127 runs, an effort helped by four dropped catches, including several early in the partnership.

West Herts were finally dismissed for a competitive 170 in the 40th and final over with Vincent-Jones and Jai Nandwani finishing with commendable figures as fair reward for their impressive opening spells.

Despite a revitalising curry-based tea, the Boxmoor reply never caught fire other than a 10th-wicket partnership between evergreen club president John Scott and captain Dan Webb, as Boxmoor were well beaten and all out for 90.