H&CHCC Wins at Home against Thurston

H&CHCC 189 FOR 7

Hodge 54 B Atkinson 48 Hannan 26

Sadler 5 for 47

Thurston 126 All Out

Rutter 3 for 39 Hodge 2 for 20 Roberts 2 for 17


On a very cold day at the Richards Oval Captain Roberts lost the toss and Thurston Skipper decided to put Hartest & Coldham Hall into bat.

Hodge and Hannan opened the batting and with Hodge on fire and able support from Hannan gave H&CHCC a tremendous start with a fifty partnership coming after 13 overs and looking quite comfortable seeing off the early threat of the new ball.

Hodge past his fifty and looking comfortable until after the dreaded drinks break with the score on 86 Hodge holed out to a smart catch at backward point for a great 57 and like buses another wicket fell in the same over with Bryant getting bowled.

Captain Roberts, Ralling and Richards also fell very quickly for a middle order batting collapse with Hannan finally his resistance being caught for a credible 26 leaving Hartest and Coldham on 112 for 6 after 28 overs and realistically after such a great foundation it had fallen apart and looking like a well short target was going to be set.

Ben Atkinson arrived at the crease and there was where the match was won with some scintillating strikes of the ball and maturity with consistency with his “brother “ A reference on the Haverhill website from last week M Atkinson played a supporting role and a calming role with still a few overs to go it was important to move the score on without committing batting suicide with heave ho shots with only nine ten jack left in the hatch.

In the eleven overs the pair put on a partnership of 68 going from 112 to 180 before the unfortunate B Atkinson trying to get back on strike for the team edged one to slip and falling short of a fifty with a superb 48 including 7 fours and 1 six.

This brought Marlow to the middle and like last week controversy of player over the boundary hit a six that was caught deep on the boundary and this time the player had stepped on the line and the six was given with Marlow not out 8 and M Atkinson also not out for 15 but most important a score that was competitive of 189 for 7.

Still very cold but full of confidence Hodge and Walton opened the bowling and Walton was very impressive but his bowling didn’t give him the rewards he deserved but his fielding and throw with a direct hit ran the first Thurston batsmen out for 2.

This was also followed by another run out from Bryant and good work behind the stumps from B Atkinson.

Hodge took two wickets with two smart catches in the field from Ralling and M Atkinson leaving Thurston 47 for 5 when the Thurston Skipper Bendall and Sadler came together and forced a good partnership and were looking menacing when Captain Roberts came on to bowl which was inspirational but his first ball could well be the champagne moment as it bounced I m told 2 or 3 feet in front of him with the cry of oh no as the Thurston batsman Bendall somehow contrived to hit it up and behind him and caught out by wicket keeper B Atkinson for 20 and leaving Thurston on 110 for 6 it was a important break through and when Sadler also caught by B Atkinson off the bowling of Captain Roberts for 45 the end was nigh.

Indeed Rutter spin finally got the last three wickets with two catches from M Atkinson and a very sharp one handed catch from Bryant and the points were Hartest and Coldham with Thurston finishing on 126 all out.


In cold conditions the fielding and bowling was very good but the batting has to be looked at as the bowling was probably not the sharpest in the world but a job still needs to be done and after a good foundation a lot of good work was undone and if not for B Atkinson the result could have and would have been very different.

Markie the Webmaster