Herts suffer 81-run defeat at Stortford

MCCA Championship Eastern Division

Cambridgeshire 229 & 132-5

Hertfordshire 82-3 & 198

Cambs won by 81 runs

HERTFORDSHIRE suffered an 81-run defeat to Cambridgeshire in their rain-effected MCCA Championship clash at Bishop’s Stortford this week.

Heavy rain on Sunday meant no play was possible with Herts winning the toss and electing to bowl when the game got underway on Monday.

Things started well for the county as Cambridgeshire were reduced to 62-5 but some lusty late order hitting from Michael Cafferkey (45) and Paul McMahon (49) helped the visitors post 229 all out.

Harpenden trio Ben Frazer (2-25), Jon Ryan (2-20) and Nick Lamb (1-38) were all amongst the wickets.

Lamb also starred with the bat on Monday top scoring for Herts with 23 before he was caught by wicketkeeper Paul Summerskill off the bowling of James Williams.

Herts’ innings came to a close on Monday evening a 82-3.

Tuesday morning began with Herts back in the field and they soon had their neighbours reeling at 17-3.

Williams (53*) and Nick Ferraby (33) steadied the ship for Cambs before Lamb had Ferraby lbw.

Visiting skipper McMahon (12*) declared the Cambridgeshire innings on 132-5 setting Herts 280 in 70 overs for victory.

It was a challenge Herts fell well short of with only Welwyn GC opener Louis Champion and skipper Andy Lewis (50) making telling contributions as Herts were knocked over for 198.

The Harpenden quartet of Lamb, Frazer, Ryan and Simon White were dismissed for scores of 10, 18, 2 and 0 respectively with McMahon (4-61) and Bruce (4-51) doing the damage for Cambridgeshire.

Herts’ next scheduled game is this Sunday (June 19) when they travel to Devon in the MCCA KO Cup.