Hartest and Coldham Win Away at Tuddenham

Hartest and Coldham Hall CC  259 for 4


Hodge 107 Not Out, B Atkinson 48, J Armstrong 37 Not Out,


Tuddenham 176 for 7


J Presland 54


J Armstrong 2-19.


   After a turbulent week when the Chairman stood down the team rallied around and the top order finally performed admirably to secure the first away victory of the season.


   Captain Ben Atkinson won the toss and on a warm sunny day so far removed from last weeks weather decided to bat with Hodge and Roberts doing the honours.


   Finally the steady start of not trying to hit every ball out the ground was replaced with intellect of playing themselves in and seeing off the new ball plus the best two Tuddenham bowlers.


   First wicket to go was Roberts for a solid 25 and more importantly 13 overs and the score was 39, in the last few weeks the team would have been 4 or 5 wickets down for similar runs, the senior batsman were taking responsibility of posting a score.


   Hannan came out an looking a little short of game time in the middle and snatched at a shot which he missed and lost his off stump bail.


Captain Ben Atkinson joined David Hodge a very important few overs with two key batsmen in and with the opening pair of bowlers taken off the pair played each ball and built a score for the team.


   Both players began seeing the ball well and plundered the Tuddenham attack without really giving their opponents a look in as the pair were terrific  playing shots all over the ground demoralising Tuddenham as they put on a game winning 131 partnership before Ben Atkinson missed a straight one and was bowled for 48 but the score had moved onto 170 for 3.


Hodge saw a very quick cameo from Peter Richards a 6 and 4 then a walk back to the pavilion as he passed Jack Armstrong who has been in excellent form with bat and ball.


Jack Armstrong was the perfect foil for a tiring Hodge who was still sending the ball all over the ground as Jack seemingly with a broken bat got his first six for the club followed shortly after with another.


Finally a big cheer went up as David Hodge return to form was complete as he got his ton to raptures of applause from his team mates.


Hartest and Coldham batted for the 40 overs and had only lost four wickets but had reached a very creditable score of 259 with Hodge 107 not out and more noticeable quick 37 not out from Jack Armstrong.


After tea with the weather still lovely warm sunny and a bit of a breeze Hartest took to the field and Jack Armstrong with the adrenalin still pumping through his body roared in and tested the opening Tuddenham batsmen.


Yadav showed some good resistance after the wicket falling to Roberts the other surprise choice opening bowler who was putting down a good spell on very much a green batting track.


Tuddenham were well behind the 8 ball for the runs and when Jack Armstrong got both Yadav and Smith out the game was over quite early as a contest.


   Captain Ben Atkinson seeing this and not unduly worried of the runs being scored put on a few of the other guys who can bowl but in recent times rarely have the luxury of bowling with a huge target to defend on the board.


 Peter " Chairman"? Richards Bowled a couple of overs as did, Shaun Faires, Nick Rutter, and Dave Armstrong who took a wicket of Presland [54] off the very last ball of the day.


However it was David Hodge superb knock supported by Atkinson, Roberts, plus Jack Armstrong which secured the first away victory of the season and even in the field Hodge bowled 6 overs, four maidens, conceded only four runs and got a wicket, so he just squeaks in as Man of the Match today.


The next game is in two weeks against Nowton so a chance of a few aches and pains to heal up with next bank holiday weekend as a free week off, however there is a six a side tournament over at our good friends Exning which Captain Ben Atkinson is looking for a team to enter as it is usually a great fun day over at the Park. If your interested in playing please contact him ASAP.


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