Ardeley Walkern Cricket Club Jim Egginton
There are a lot of games to report this month, the weather has been kind to us cricketers and we have had a reasonable season so far.
On the 20th May we had our first home game against Bengeo, who last year were vying for top spot. They batted first and lost wickets steadily, and it looked as though we would get them out for under 100. However as very often happens the tail end wagged and they ended up with 144. We put on 105 for the first wicket when Brian Hartley was out for 48, so it looked plain sailing. However our tail did not wag and we were only saved by Simon Dowler getting a swift 19.
This was our first win for some 15 games since last June.
At Thundridge the following week they made 201, and we came close with 186 being all out of the last ball of our 40 overs. Jeremy Dyson made 70, Simon Dowler 39.
On the 2nd June we played Westmill at Standon as their ground is not available due to foot and mouth, being in a sheep field. We batted first and made a creditable 183 with Jeremy scoring 50 and Micky Daly a career best 38 who is on form this year. Our bowlers did well with Liam Paulus and Steve Harrop opening the bowling and taking early wickets and Mark Armond cleaning up the tail. This was our 2nd win.
On Thursday 7th June we had an evening cup match against Aspendon Standon Puckeridge who have joined/formed a new club this year. We batted first but did not do well our upper order crumbled, and we were saved a little from the tail with Steve Harrop and Micky Daly scoring a few to bring us to 98. They knocked these off in a professional manner with Freeman scoring 50.
On the 17th June we had a return match against Westmill at home and they got their own back. We made a paltry 87 batting first, we were mostly unlucky enough to get ourselves out, and 27 of those were extras. They knew they did not have a big total and played safe waiting for the bad ball, only loosing 3 wickets.
Under 12s
There has been a lot of interest in this section with 18 to 20 boys and girls taking part in training/nets which have now finished in favour of matches.
We had our first game on 20th June, a Wednesday evening against a team from Welwyn, some of whom were older than us. However we had a good game, batting first we made a creditable 66 with Mathew Egginton and Chris Harrop scoring runs.
The oppositions age showed in their batting however and we only got two wickets with a good catch by James Moody and also Mark Vincent bowled one of their main batsman. They all fielded well and all had a bowl, though it did end a bit late at 8:45.
It is good to see such interest in youth cricket, there is a lot to learn and they are all very keen.