Hemel Hempstead Town CC are too good for Hitchin as they remain third

It's been since the end of May when Lewis Hodgins restarted playing following his winter sojourn in Australia that Hemel have awaited him to come back to his form of the last few years at the club.

On Saturday they had it with Hodgins opening the batting and scoring 69 and then coming on as second change bowler to take 5-48 and bowl out Hitchin for 106.

After the early departure of Hem Ilangaratne, Hodgins and Brett Penny (85) put on 153 for the Hemel second wicket and with Billy Jones (46*) and Matt Parkins (25*) adding 45* for the seventh wicket Hemel made it to 250-6 from their 60 overs.

Darren James then got things moving in the right direction by bowling Ajay Singh Momi with the first ball of the Hitchin reply.

It was the spin of Parth Mehta (4-20) and Hodgins (5-45) that did the damage from there as they bowled Hitchin out.

Hemel remain in third place in the Championship but now only 18 points behind Shenley Village, who lost to Broxbourne, and who Hemel visit this weekend in what looks set to be an interesting game.

Bottom-placed Bayford & Hertford must have thought they were in with a chance when they had reduced Hemel II to 45-4 after 13 overs and then 102-6 after 27.

Newcomer Oscar Pryor had been the obly top order batter to register with 33. But the Hemel batting does go deeper and wicketkeeper Ryan Wilson held the tail together with 41 and when he departed on 151, no.10 Rory Fraser (20) and no.11 Alfie Bordoley (16*) added 37 for the last wicket to push Hemel II up to 188.

Still not a great score but skipper Charlie Hoskins knew the man he had for the job.

Will Hodgins removed Bayford opener Wailes fourth ball and then Suren Perera, not a usual opening bowler, was used from the other end.

After six overs he had taken 3 for 5 and Bayford were in trouble at 33-4. Suren went on to take 5-24 from nine overs and the rest of the Hemel bowlers chipped in to dismiss Bayford for 74 in 24 overs.

Old Owens II are top of Division 6A having lost only one game – that to Hemel III in the second game of the league season.

So it was understandable that they would put out a strong team to gain revenge.

Hemel batted first and put together a score of 247-4 in their 50 overs. Nikil Singh led the way with 72 and that was supported by 58* from Ram Hussain and 47* from Freddie Lowe who put on an undefeated 90 for the fifth wicket.

But taking wickets was going to be key and despite the initial breakthrough of a duck for their opener Jordan Carter, bowled by Ajay Savania, Hemel could only take two more, one each to Dil & Anjam Khan.

There were plenty of Premier league registered players in their ranks, even for a second XI, none more than Chris Palmer who hit 94 as Old Owens won by seven wickets with two overs to go.

It’s ten wins on the bounce for Hemel IV after their first week stumble against Bamville.

Hertford won the toss and batted, scoring 174-6 from their 40 overs on a warm day. Opener Steve Page (54) kept one end going as Hertford assembled their runs. There were two wickets each for Matt Petchell (2-14), Tayyab Sadiq (2-35) and Jacob Hodgins (2 - 45).

That score did not seem to phase the Hemel batsmen who knocked it off in 33 overs for the loss of only two wickets.

Steve Smith topped the runs with 67, fellow opener Mike Samuels hit 43 and then Max Clark (25*) and Matt Petchell (26*) saw the rest of the runs needed.

There was at last a win for the rapidly constructed Hemel V in their epic foray into Saturday afternoon cricket.

They beat Ickleford IV who were free after Division 12 North rivals Datchworth IV dropped out of their fixture.

Batting first in their agreed 40 over friendly Hemel V made it to 176-5 with Harry Howard top scoring on 30 until he ran himself out.

Dan Turbutt hit 26 as did Jim Langley with the not out variety and opener Drew Butler made 25.

A total to defend, which they did bowling Ickleford IV out for 109. Jemion Jacobs led the spree with 4-19, Drew Butler proved he could bowl as well as bat with

2-17 and Rushil Didhia took a smart 2-9 to remove the middle batsmen.

There was a win in the Chess Valley League Division for Hemel Sunday 2nd XI at the fourth time of asking.

Old Haberdashers scored their innings via the system called play-cricket and the numbers ended up not matching. Nineteen was the overall difference and to their credit Hemel allowed the higher score of 195-9 to stand for the score.

It might have been different if Hemel had failed to reach it, but there we are three wickets for Harry Howard (3-68) to go with his 30 runs the day before for Hemel V, 2-27 for Dil Khan and 2-30 for Callum Humphrey.

The Hemel batsmen then set about their chase and most conributed. There was 35 from Matt Scears, 32 from Adam Locke as the captain and V-C

contributed, 26 from Philip Smith opening and then Tom Willetts (22*) and Dil Khan (26*) put on 34* for the seventh wicket as Dil finished things with a six into Station Road with just under eight overs to spare.