Thunderous game at the Oval

Lavenham 183 all out

Bellward 66 - Hoadley 5 for 27.

H&CHCC 187 for 8 25.2 Overs

Hoadley 66, Roberts 28, Bryant 24, Richards 21 M Atkinson 20.

Thunder & Lightening in the sky and on the pitch what a game as unbeaten Lavenham came to the oval and they were keen to do business.

Lavenham lost the toss and Captain Bryant decided to put them into bat and with Lavenham chomping at the bit were already on the field of play ten minutes before the scheduled start.

At this point the rumble of thunder was in the back ground for the first time and five overs into a very lively opening spell from Jack Armstrong and new man Mathew Hoadley the teams had to leave while a heavy down pour ensued.

Fifteen minutes the break took before Lavenham re entered the field and with the openers being pinned down Hoadley took his first H&CHCC wicket bowling Captain Wigens for 16 soon followed by Jack Armstrong reward for generating speed of a wet wicket to bowl Robinson for 2 leaving Lavenham on 33.

Bellward and Jones took the score to 77 before Jones was bowled by the most of time luckless Moriarty for 16.

Bellward was scoring at a reasonable rate for Lavenham putting on 43 with Madall who was only on six when Gus Walton returning from injury got his efforts rewarded with bowling Madall out middle stump.

Theobald joined Bellward and they put on a fifty partnership but some slack fielding and the failing to hang on to catches let Lavenham off the hook however with the score on 166 Bellward finally holed out shortly passing his own milestone of fifty being caught for 64.

Captain Bryant brought back Hoadley for a second spell and he had the Lavenham batsmen in a spell as he began to get a bit of luck and some deserved luck as he started getting wickets while Peter Richards was tying down the other end plus getting two wickets himself.

On the last ball of Hoadley spell he bowled out Nice to earn his 5 wicket haul but it was Local man Shuan Faires who has a lot of connections with Lavenham ended their innings taking a catch off the bowling of Richards to leave Lavenham all out for 183.

With Hodge away on holiday a change to the opening pair with Roberts opening with Captain Bryant and similar to the H&CHCC bowlers they started on fire both striking the ball well and after two overs were on 19 runs.

This continued well and the Lavenham bowlers were wondering what had hit them as tensions at this stage began to surface with a couple of unsightly little incidents going on and the sledging caused Roberts to hole out just as the pair had go a fifty partnership to a fine catch from Nice running in to dismiss Roberts for 28.

B Atkinson back of a large score the day before got brought down to earth quickly miss timing a shot and perished for one run straight after the demise of Bryant being caught after hitting a high ball into the hands of Nice again.

Man of the match Mathew Hoadley entered the fray and a fray it was becoming with some not nice sledging going on the win at all costs was firing up the H&CHCC instead of putting them off their stride.

Hoadley was scoring at a twenty twenty rate to all parts of the ground and with the clouds getting darker and like the bowling Peter Richards scoring from the other end the pair put on 70 runs before Richards chasing a wide one sadly chipped it to gully and was out for 21 but the score on 122.

M Atkinson joined Hoadley and fed him the strike as he was in fine form passing a well deserved 50 with the clouds looking for a down pour and putting on 45 Hoadley was caught and bowled to a fine catch by Theobald for 66 and the game took another twist with the score on Hoadley departure 153 and Moriarty coming in a strange turn of events began to unfold.

The light was poor but M Atkinson who had already taken a blow was preparing to take his guard when a flash of lightening saw half the Lavenham team run for cover who for being so tough in the middle seemed very soft centered and as the Lavenham Captain looked on embarrassingly the Lavenham players refused to come out and while the Captain tried to get them out the rain came down to call a halt to proceedings.

Lavenham were very keen to end it with H&CHCC only needing just over thirty runs but the tail was exposed and not always renowned for big runs there but Captain Bryant refused to give in that quickly and held his ground saying to Lavenham to wait until it passed over.

Forty minutes delay when rain plus the light had improved to eventually get Lavenham out and back onto the pitch with M Atkinson & Moriarty in the middle of a hostile situation but with drizzle back in the air M Atkinson got on with things hitting three boundaries to try and relief the pressure which was mounting as he lost Moriarty for seven plus Jamie Gwatkin making his first return in two seasons for one.

M Atkinson all but got H&CHCC home and on the honours board when he was caught on the boundary for 20 leaving the score on 179 five to win with two wickets remaining.

Gus Walton and Shuan Faires were understandably nervous but Walton hit a four to equal the scores and how Shaun Faires may have dreamed the night before that he was the man with a lot of Lavenham connections to get his first runs in two decades when he swept the ball to the boundary for four and win the game.

Lavenham were not happy through most of the game this their first defeat they took hard and needless to say did not find the Shimpling Bush pub afterwards but a great win for Hartest and Coldham Hall Cricket Club was enjoyed by the team and let the rest of the league know they are no push overs.

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