Chesterfords entertained Hockerill II’s on Saturday realising that the loss of two games in a row would seriously harm their desire for promotion into Divison 2 next season. Chesterfords lost the all important toss and were put into bat on what looked to be a very tough batting track.

Chesterfords opening pair of James Lipscombe and Wazz Mughal started off in confident fashion helped by the erratic bowling of Rahill and Hassan who were simply gifting runs to the opposition. Chesterfords cruised to 70 off of 13 overs for the loss of no wicket with both Mughal and Lipscombe looking very comfortable at the crease. The hitting of Mughal at times was breathtaking as he cleared the boundary with power and pure technical ability before he was bowled for 32 by the seriously erratic bowling of Nayim who had just bowled three no balls in a row. David Perring was then judged to be out LBW and Chesterfords with the loss of two quick wickets were 95 for 2 off of 17 overs. Lipscombe continued to bat confidently and reached his third League 50 in a row and wasn’t looking in any trouble until the accurate bowling of S.Andrews finally undid Lipscombe who tried to lift the ball over mid off only to miss it altogether and then hear the dreaded chink of ball on stump which sent him back to the pavilion for 61. Paul Phillips batted well scoring 25 and James Pullen also showed strong early season form with a swashbuckling 30 not out, which propelled Chesterfords to a final total of 195 for the loss of 4 wickets.

With the showers interrupting play at times the two Captains decided to take an early tea and reduce the game to 40 overs per side to make sure that the fixture could at least be completed.

With a strong batting performance Chesterfords took to the field in buoyant mood with the ball being tossed to the prolific Alan Stokley and Perring who were soon into their stride. Hockerhill’s batsmen really struggled against the accurate bowling of Perring and Stokley with Sanders the only batsmen who had any answers to the questions that were being asked of him. Stokley restricted the batting side with his medium paced out swingers and finished with figures of 8 over 2 wickets for 18 runs and Perring who finished with the unbelievable figures of 1 wicket for 12 runs off of  8 overs proved to be just to good and with none of the other batsmen managing to offer any support to Sanders who was eventually bowled by Tim Lewis for a hard fought 51. With Hockerills next highest scorer only reaching 13 Chesterfords bowled out the opposition for 115 thanks to the good work with the ball from Adam Miles 2 for 23 and Steve Squares 2 for1.

Another strong team performance brought home the all important 26 points and with the Division already beginning to take shape Chesterfords are looking confidently to the more challenging fixtures ahead.         Scorecard