3rd XI kick-start season in fine style.

Ricky 3s made their way to a sunny Knebworth Park ground still looking for their first win of the season. After losing the toss and being put in openers Ajay and Stuart continued their miserable starts to the campaign, both perishing by mistiming wayward deliveries that should have been dispatched to the boundary. That brought Vish and Raz to the crease, and the former wasted no time in getting to his half century off 57 balls, surviving a dropped catch on the way. Raz (41) fell just short of a half century for the second third XI game in succession after some classy work, but Vish and Mark Raine continued to keep the score moving along nicely. Vish survived another difficult catching chance, only to fall ten short of what would have been a deserved century. Mark (30) then played anchor role as Kamran (30) let rip with some lusty blows. Knebworth kept going in the field, with their tweaker Taylor bowling particularly well for figures of 5-37. A flurry of wickets in the last few overs as Ricky sought quick runs led skipper Squires to declare after 51.4 overs with a very decent score of 221-9.

After tea, the Ricky attack of Ajay (3-27) and Brendan (2-17) maintained a good line of bowling restricting the Knebworth openers to under 3 per over in the first 10 overs. Patience was always going to be key and once the first wicket fell, a flurry of wickets reduced Knebworth from 28 without loss to 41-5. A belligerent 41 off 46 balls from Knebworth skipper Folwell, only delayed the inevitable with Brett (3-14) coming on and mopping up most of the tail. Golden arm Raz (1-2) was given an over an duly removed Folwell, leaving the hosts 131 runs short of the target with 16 overs unbowled.

The result propelled Ricky3 to 12th in Division 9, with a game in hand of most of the teams above. The next 3 games, at least, look winnable, but a lot might depend on how much of the team from Saturday can be kept together.

Match Report: Stuart Squires