Stanford Le Hope CC 186 all out (51 overs) beat
Horndon on the Hill CC 102 all out (47.2 overs) by 84 runs.
Stanford won this local derby match in exciting style. The Horndon batsman were not interested in scoring the runs required to win the match at the start of the final hour, and it took some heroics from Stanford captain Lee Knight to capture this much needed and well deserved win.
Horndon captain Jeff West Jnr won the toss and put Stanford in to bat in testing conditions. Overnight rain made the surface damp and Horndon opening bowlers, Jack Marson and Connor Price took advantage by removing Stanford’s Knight and Maher cheaply. With some rebuilding to do, Martin Leslie joined Duncan Page at the crease to weather the early storm.
Leslie played some glorious drives to ease the pressure as he made a sensible 30 before being caught by Price off the bowling of West. With batting difficult, Page was the mainstay of the Stanford innings and his innings of 24 from 35 overs enabled Stanford to post a defendable score. Ross Poulton also added a sublime 30 along with Matthew Higgins (19 not out) and returning legend Marc Lewis (18 retired). The latter was injured whilst batting and would therefore miss the second innings, much to his and his team-mates disappointment.
In reply, Horndon made a good start through Terry Hurrell (24) and overseas player Cash Nizami (24). Experienced bowler, Gary Sanderson, was instrumental in Horndon’s downfall as he claimed a magnificent 5-22 from 14 overs. Sanderson removed Nizami, Canavon, Hubbard, Walsh and Chris Stone to put Stanford in a commanding position. At the other end, Spinner Ross Poulton, removed West and Tom Stone as he collected figures of 2-22 off 16 overs. With Horndon looking to play for the draw, Connor Price defended astutely by scoring just 2 not out from 53 balls as Horndon looked to take the game from Stanford, despite putting them into bat. As Stanford were going through the overs quickly in the last hour, much down to Horndon not hitting many runs, they managed to buy themselves 2 extra overs. It was then down to captain Lee Knight to throw up a variety of deliveries to entice the Horndon batsman to play shots that they couldn’t refuse. Knight managed to catch Marson off his own bowling before trapping number 11, Moseley, for zero to win the game for his side. This sent the masses into jubilation as Stanford secured 25 much needed points.
