Hemel Hempstead Town CC battle to earn a draw at Shenley Village

It looked at several instances they might lose the game which would have been disastrous for their promotion chances but a draw meant they are now 24 points behind Shenley as opposed to the 18 points of last week.

Batting first, Shenley were kept to a rate of three an over at their halfway point, being 92-2 from 30 overs.

They put the foot down from then on and reached 246-8 from their 60 overs. Lewis Hodgins picked up 4-73 and Parth Mehta returned 2-80 as both bowled 18 overs each.

The start of the Hemel reply was a bit of a catastrophe with them reaching 32-4 after 16-and-a-half overs with Shenley opening bowler Kris Nissen turning in 3-14 from eight-and-a-half overs.

Jack Doodson (45) and Tom Elborn (76) put on 100 for the fifth wicket but after Anwar had dismissed them both it was dig in heels time.

Other opener Mohammed Shafiq removed Matt Parkins and Mehta in his last, the penultimate over, and it was down to skipper Nick Hodgins to see out the last over from Nissen to snaffle the draw.

*Hemel II were up against Parkfield and Headstone and ran out winners.

Batting first, Hemel II had lost half their wickets in 20 overs for just 93 runs.

But Hemel’s lower half batting is made of sterner stuff. Ryan Wilson dug in for 20, Charlie Hoskins swotted 47 from 37 balls and Suren Perera, batting at 10, hit 42* from 29 balls including 24 from one over (2x6,2x4,2x2). That got Hemel up to 232 all out and feeling more comfortable.

Then the bowlers came to the fore again. Perera winkled out batters one and three with the score at 24 but the man of the bowling day was Will Hodgins who returned 6-57, removing the last two wickets halfway through his last over.

Hemel remain in second place in Division 3B, seven points ahead of London Colney who visit Heath Park in two weeks’ time.

*There was a narrow defeat for Hemel III by one wicket off the last ball of the game against Letchworth.

Hemel had batted first and were all out for 203 but with ten overs of their allowed 50 unused. Freddie Lowe had bashed his way to 83 (3x6, 11x4) but skipper Ram Hussain was left stranded on 55* as the tail fell away.

The Hemel bowlers plugged away with a couple of wickets each for Dil Khan (2-19), Ed Grayson (2-27), Dan Keene (2-31) and Freddie Lowe (2-34).

But losing wickets, Letchworth just kept their runs needed in sight and sneaked home off the last ball of their 50 overs.

*There was a big win for Hemel IV at Baldock by 190 runs which is not bad going in a 40 over game.

Main star for Hemel was Matt Petchell who hit 108* for his second ton of the league season after his 100 against Hoddesdon III.

Around him Lutero Corrigan continued his break into adult cricket with 35 and skipper Graham Clark, who has been through it all before, made 33 from opening.

The Hemel bowlers then got stuck in. Six bowlers were used with Jacob Hodgins leading the way with 3-24 followed by Tayyab Sadiq with 2-10.

The Clark brothers finished the innings off with a couple of brotherly catches as Max caught from Finley’s bowling and then vice-versa.

Hemel are 20 points ahead of second-placed Bamville in Division 9A and 47 points ahead of third-placed Southgate Compton who visit Heath Park next week.

*The Sunday 2nd XI got their second successive win in the Chess Valley League by beating hosts Harefield.

Batting first in their 45 over game, 50s from opener Ravi Hindocha (64) and Charlie Hoskins (57) helped push Hemel onto a score of 253-7 which is five-and-a-half an over.

Tom Willetts’ dad Colin opened with Ravi Hindocha, scored 34 and helped put on 108 for the first wicket in 22 overs.

The family tradition continued in the Hemel bowling with the youngest Hodgins playing, Jacob, turning his arm over to great effect taking 5-43 from his ten overs to take the meat out of the Harefield innings.

Hindocha showed his versatilty to come on at the end and remove the Harefield tail with 3-18 to secure a win by 49 runs and snaffle four points.