In a match sponsored by THE EGERTON ARMS,
Chelford hosted the usually verbal Hartford at Peover
Lane on Saturday.
Skipper Krish Bhardwa
won the toss and asked the visitors to bat first on
a green looking deck. His hopes of early inroads were
quickly dashed as Hartford got off to a racing start.
Openers J.Hodgkinson (34) & J.Farrow (22) put the
bad ball away with some aplomb as the scoreboard raced
to 48-1 after 11 overs. Steve Mitchell (2-22) then entered
the attack and removed both in quick succession to open
the door for Chelford.
Rory Prentice then
returned for superb second spell of 2-12 from six overs,
and aided by spinners Andy Duffy & Hash Vora, the
Hartford charge came to a grinding halt. Runs dried
up, and when Krish came on for his second burst, the
visitors were blown away as he returned 4-3 from a five
over spell. Hartford all out for a sub par 148.
With the pitch playing
quite benign and easy paced, this run chase should have
been a simple matter of run accumulation and putting
the bad ball away. However Chelford hit the self destruct
button and unbelievably found themselves at 2-5 after
8 overs. All this after opening bowler G.Prew came off
after one over due to injury. Mind boggling.
Fortunately Chelford
batted all the way down, and Krish (28no), Rory (60),
and Matt Dingle (19) managed to salvage something from
the wreckage as the innings closed on 122-8, and Chelford
hung on for a draw in a game they should have won comfortably.
The top six should be shame faced after managing just
4 runs between them.
Despite being lent
a Sub fielder for Prew, and then churning out the usual
verbals in the field, Hartford couldn't quite be gracious
in not winning and scuttled off into the night after
close of play without a word. Charming.
Langley at home next
week. The last time at Langley, Chelford were 19-9 at
one point. Oh Lord! |