Rodwell makes Bovingdon club history

History was made on Sunday at Bovingdon in a 35 run victory over Ivinghoe and Pitsone as Fred Rodwell became the first player in the 132 year history of the club to score a century and take five wickets in the same match.
No Caption ABCDE PNL-160523-104750002No Caption ABCDE PNL-160523-104750002
No Caption ABCDE PNL-160523-104750002

Rodwell opened the batting and was one of only two players to make it past ten, joined by Dylan Cohen with 19. The opener dominated the innings in every way, underlined by the fact that his 117 runs came in a total of just 188 all out and he was the last batsman to fall.

Any batsman who is at the crease for the duration of the first innings of a match can usually expect to be allowed to stand at slip throughout the second innings, but that was a luxury not given to Rodwell as he was required to come on and bowl first change after Nick Baxter and Afzal Rahman had both taken a wicket a piece with the new ball.

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

There was a worry that history would not be made while Rodwell had four wickets to his name as a chance was dropped by Tony Shand, but another opportunity was created and he was able to return figures of 5-22 from his six overs. There were also wickets for Gavin Ivey, Dylan Cohen and Shand to complete the victory.

Bovingdon continued their good start to the season in Division 6B with a convincing 38 run victory away at Letchworth Garden City III. Bovingdon’s opening batting partnership of Jack Blackburn and Michael Buttleman put on more than 50 for the first wicket in good time for the second week in a row before the latter was dismissed. This was followed by a majestic stand of more than a 100 between Ian Arnold and Blackburn who was eventually dismissed for 90, agonisingly short of what would have been a well-deserved century.

The runs continued to flow with aggressive hitting from Arnold who made a superb 80 and Nick Baxter’s 42 runs which included two huge sixes. The innings ended with cameos from Luke Stickland and Graham Fayers to get the Bovingdon total to 296/4 after 50 overs. There was a brief delay for rain at the start of the host’s innings and a revised total of 279 from 47 overs was set. The visitors got off to the best possible start as Baxter and Tom Childs both took early wickets to remove the Letchworth openers. The scoring rate throughout the second innings was decent, but never quite good enough to mount a serious challenge to get to the total required. Two wickets apiece for Stickland, Blackburn and Fayers ensured that there were no partnerships of the quality seen in the first innings and the innings closed at 231/7.

Bovingdon’s under 10s were in action last week away at Leverstock Green and came short by 30 runs, but there were plenty of good performances with bat and ball. They will play again this week at home to Potten End.