Broxbourne 2’s stay top of Division 4B after a strong team performance against previously unbeaten Shenley Village 2’s at a very hot Mill Lane.

All eyes were on the toss, Shenley Village skipper Thomson called correctly and had no hesitation in having a bat. With plenty of spf 50 and water on board Broxbourne set about looking to restrict Shenley whilst not fielding the full 50 overs. Tom Bolt hit a good length early on and despite a few wides, made inroads to the Shenley batting order with Kothari gone in the first over and the dangerous Mahalingham a few overs later to remove the openers. Spin was introduced early to replace Pegg at the newly named Padel Court Car Park End and Brad Sayers consistently found good areas to restrict the flow of runs on the rapid outfield. After Bolty’s 10 overs on the spin and a well deserved rest, Glassberg come on to join Sayers, and later JT with continued strong bowling. Only Nikhil Borkhatria had any joy against the Broxbourne attack before holing out in the penultimate over for a well made 91. Wickets were shared; 3 for Bolty, 3 for JT, 2 for Glassberg and 2 for Pegg, whilst Sayers went for 2 an over from his 10, restricting the opposition to 216 when quite frankly any target could have been made on a real flat one.

After umpire Leroy tried hurrying up the Broxbourne batsman to have a shorter tea break to no avail, Broxbourne set about the task. Urwin departed early bringing Sayers to the crease to join Kegan with the intention of quick early runs to make a dent into the target. Kegan bat well rotating the strike whilst Sayers hit boundary after boundary. Brad eventually fell for 72 off of just 47 balls, given out LBW despite being well outside of off stump. The dangerous Borkhatria was bowling well with big leg spinners causing the downfall for Eales & Goff. The returning Muz and the wily old fox Glassberg steered the ship with Broxbourne well on for achieving the target with overs to spare, but as this funny old game goes, Leroy again gave a controversial LBW, this time for Muz to leave the Broxbourne lower order scrambling. In the end Bolty and man of the moment Glassberg (48*) completed the chase, 8 down with 8 overs in hand to earn the Badgers a well earned Moretti, a Guinness & Port and a small hangover ready for the big day of action on Sunday.

A great effort from all involved, a big welcome back to Muz and lets keep the winning run going away at Radlett 3’s in Week 7.

UP THE BADGERS