After a long winter of lockdowns and no indoor training, the season finally got underway on a glorious spring day with a 45 over pre-season friendly against local rivals Ickenham 2s. Captain Olly Richards won the toss and elected to bat on what looked to be an excellent track for so early in the season.
Jack Shiel and Will Shepherd walked out to face the Ickenham opening attack. Second ball of the match, Shiel rocketed a cut shot straight to the man at cover point for a second ball duck. However, this early set back did not deter the Harefield batters, as they got the scoreboard moving and sought to take the attack to the Ickenham opening bowlers. After a swift 93-run partnership, the introduction of the left-arm leg spinner saw the demise of Shepherd for 43, courtesy of a stunning one-handed diving catch at backward point. This wicket brought the other Shiel, George to the crease. Some clean ball-striking off the spinners saw Richards bring up his fifty. The return of the Ickenham opening bowler proved a good move as he dismissed Shiel, bowled for 13, with the score now at 145-3. This brought Russ Petley to the crease, and combined with the mighty hitting of Richards, saw that the scoreboard continued to flow freely. Richards brought up his hundred shortly before the carnage really started. An over of 34 runs, courtesy of Richards against the left-arm orthodox spinner proved to be the highlight of the Hares innings with only the penultimate ball of the over going for a 4 rather than a 6. As the partnership went over 100, and the to score 264, Petley ran past a leg spinning delivery and as the keeper fumbled it, Petley continued down the track towards the pavilion. Eventually, the ball was brought to the stumps and Petley was dismissed, stumped, for 42. Jamie Knife joined Richards, and immediately struck 2 boundaries before he too was dismissed by the leg-spinner for 11. Richards was joined by keeper Tom Day before he brought up his 150, before retiring out on 156 off 89 deliveries. Daisy combined with the lower order batters, Dan Evans, James Hamilton and Scott Morris managed to boost the score up to 346 - 8 off the Hares 45 overs. After the bring-your-own-tea break, play resumed with the Hares opening bowlers Hamilton and Evans. The Ickenham openers initially looked to be up for the task, with the first few overs going at a run rate of 10 an over. However, soon after the score reached the half century the first wicket fell with the Ickenham captain departing to Hamilton to give him his first wicket in a Hares shirt. This slowed the scoring rate as first change bowler Shepherd dismissed the number 3, bowled for 19, with the score on 76 - 2. The introduction of spinners Morris and Sam Beacham proved fruitful. The runs completely dried up and wickets started to fall at regular intervals. Morris finished with very impressive figures of 9-4-9-4 and Beacham with 6-1-15-3 as Jack Shiel came on at the end to claim the 10th and final wicket to see Ickenham bowled out for 132, giving Hares the win by 214 runs. An excellent start to the season with the match played in very good spirit. Thanks to umpire Mark Petley, and scorers Victor Devers and Ajoy Nair for their help as well as groundsman Michael Woodwards for his amazing efforts to get the ground in such good condition. Scorecard link: https://harefield.play-cricket.com/website/results/4787504
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