H&CHCC Win away on the Longest Day at Brettenham

Brettenham 202 for 5 in 40 Overs

Hicks 57, Swinney 47, Spake 40

Hodge 3 for 36

H&CHCC 203 FOR 4 IN 30.4 Overs

Bryant 44, Hodge 42, B Atkinson 33



On a cloudy fathers day in the Brettenham Park at Old Buckingham School grounds Hartest and Coldham Hall recorded there first away win of the season and only there second win of the season.

Brettenham won the toss and decided to bat on a flat wicket with quite short boundaries but a slow outfield in an unusual combination.

Two new debuts for Hartest and Coldham in the names of Hamish Fiddes and Miles Platt who opened the bowling from the pavilion end with a wicket in his impressive spell of ten overs in his second over a smart catch behind from B Atkinson wicket keeper.

This was the only success in a long time and overs as the batsman were just on top but runs were not always easy to come by but in true tradition H&CHCC dropped another 5 catches today with also conceding a total of 40 extras it was unsurprising that the next wicket fell with the score on 133 but after 28 overs.

Pake and Hicks were the main contributors to this total followed up by a quick fire 47 from Swinney with only Hodge mastering the opposition getting the other 3 wickets to fall all catches from Captain Bryant two deep on the boundary.

With runs coming fast towards the end of the innings Armstrong picked up a wicket in the final Brettenham total of 202 for 5 which seemed a good score with the clouds and dark conditions closing in after tea.

With a change of opening pair Hodge and Roberts opened the batting for H&CHCC to which Roberts got off to a flyer and out scoring Hodge initially but Roberts was out clearly LBW for 22 in a total of 40 first wicket but after only 9 overs well up with the run rate required.

Hodge and B Atkinson came together and so did the boundaries began to flow from both batsmen a huge low six from B Atkinson first this season and Hodge scoring 8 fours in his innings the pair put on 73 before Hodge admirably and honourably in the true spirit of the game of Cricket admitted that the umpire who had given a wide already that he edged it and walked. Trust me when I say this would not happen in 99% of matches and probably the reason why the game of cricket is still played the way it should be at H&CHCC with Brettenham in full admiration of this gesture.

Bryant joined B Atkinson as in many cases after a partnership is split up the other batsman in this case B Atkinson was bowled for 33 but more importantly the score on 114 after only 20 overs which could see the H&CHCC players feeling confident that the game was very much on to win.

Captain Bryant was joined by the other debutant Hamish Fiddes who was a 14 year old with such a lot of ability and was a great foil for Captain Bryant who was in majestic form with the bat and hitting 4 sixes and as many fours he soon rattled up 44 with Fiddes showing some fantastic composure and some very classy shots the score was heading up fast to the Brettenham score.

With only 9 runs required Captain Bryant perished going for another big shot and the partnership of 81 was over but Hannan came out with purpose and hit two boundaries for four plus a single and with Fiddes unbeaten on 22 the game was over with a healthy six wicket win and a very valuable 20 points.

The game against Brettenham was again like last year very sporting and very sociable with all going for friendly drink in the One Bull Thorpe Morieux who layed on plenty of free food and chips which was very gracefully received.

H&CHCC now have a week off and then two homes games the first being Acton and where the recovery needs to start as a couple of wins can soon catapult a team up the league and today's result could easily be the one that got the season and the determination to succeed back again.

Markie the Webmaster