Flamstead bow out of the Hertfordshire Trophy Cup after a four wicket defeat against Botany Bay

Hertfordshire Trophy Cup

Flamstead 220–8

Botany Bay 223-6

Botany Bay won by four wickets

After Saturday’s league fixture against Old Albanian II was washed out Flamstead entertained Botany Bay from Division Five in the first round of the Hertfordshire Trophy Cup. Skipper, Andy Taylor lost the toss as usual but nevertheless was not unhappy to be asked to bat first.

It was not long before Flamstead were two wickets down as Matt Westwood (4) and Dave Watson were bowled by Sutcliffe off consecutive balls leaving Flamstead struggling on 16-2 after seven overs.

Andy Taylor and Matt Brown (8) then took the score to 47 off 15 overs but then opening bowler, Hall, had Brown caught behind. Having seen off Hall, who bowled his 10 overs straight through for just 17 runs and one wicket, Taylor (35) was then stumped and with David Oswin (18) falling in the 29th over the Flamstead innings was in serious trouble at 75-5.

Mike Bradbeer and 18-year-old Josh Evans then started to rebuild the innings as they put on an entertaining stand of 70 in 18 overs. When Evans (21) was run out with just eight overs to go Josh Rose was promoted up the order for the second week running and again he responded. Rose (21) and Bradbeer then hit 41 off just five overs before Rose and Bradbeer fell in quick succession.

Bradbeer (57) was stumped for his first fifty of the season having hit nine fours and got the Flamstead innings back on track at 186 with 3.4 overs remaining. Dave Rogers (14*) and Tim Wilkinson (18*) then smashed a useful 34 runs to leave Flamstead with a decent looking total of 220.

Botany Bay got off to a good start as skipper, Kastelik (38) and Lawrence put on 76 for the opening wicket. The introduction of Twiggy Rogers soon produced a wicket as Kastelik was caught at mid-on and seven runs later a good throw from Jack Smith ran out the number three for just a single.

Lawrence and Richardson put together a useful stand of 37 before Rogers struck again by removing the dangerous Lawrence (45) thanks to a superb catch by Josh Evans at deep mid-off.

With Botany Bay looking comfortable at 152 for three Evans then bowled Richardson (40) but with Rogers having completed his 10 overs for just 26 runs and two wickets Banerjee and Holloway (15) put together a stand of 56 to get Botany Bay within 13 runs of victory. Banerjee (64*) guided Botany Bay home despite losing one more wicket with seven overs remaining.

Skipper, Andy Taylor, was disappointed with the defeat but saw some positives from his team’s performance. “We recovered really well thanks to Mike Bradbeer and young Josh Evans and put together some useful partnerships which we haven’t been doing regularly in our league matches,” he said.

“The fielding today was really sharp and Twiggy could easily have had four or five wickets with a bit more luck. We now look forward to returning to the league next week when our visitors will be Totteridge Millhillians III.”