1st XI beat Ashford by 10 wickets
After two August wash outs, the Hill faced a welcome Saturday with no showers forecasted and just the solitary rain card to face Ashford CC at the Fulwell fortress.
HHCC won the toss and put the visitors in on a green looking pitch. This gave the opportunity to Robo and Boulton to continue their well discussed competition for leading wicket taker. The former found some swing early on, which adds a further asset to an already impressive armoury, however it was Boulton who made the early breakthrough, trapping the opener in front. The lethal duo produced a serious spell of bowling that saw the visitors reduced to 28/5.
Hampton Hills very own Jasprit Bumrah, Boulton got his just rewards and claimed his (hard to believe) maiden 5 wicket haul as the Ashford batsmen were blown away, whilst Robottom worked tirelessly from one end. The change to JNS worked immediately as Ashford fell to 49-8, however some lower order resistance saw the score reach 78 before a well-timed slower ball from “Robespierre” ended Ashford resistance.
A long list of batsmen have fallen to J Boulton down the years; Tymal Mills, Tom Westley, Joe Root and Don Bradman to name just a few. So, it is no surprise to see him climb to 29 Surrey Championship “Div 5” wickets, finishing with 7/27 in another heroic 14 over spell.
The flourishing partnership of “Jaeger” Sones and Bennett sought about chasing what could’ve proved to be an awkward chase on a seemingly tricky pitch by the later calmly taking the singles on offer whilst “J” Sones looked set on taking the game to the opening bowlers after a restful day at Lords on Friday.
Sones coupled some glorious drives with placement through the vacant third man region off “quickest bowler in the league” to ensure the Hill got off to a flying start.
The openers never looked back from there, with positive intent against the various spin options Ashford threw at them. Sones bringing his LMS shots into league cricket, playing beautifully down the ground, which included a celebration for a maximum that some of his teammates hope is never repeated.
At the other end Richard rotated the strike and took the aerial route off the spinners when required as HHCC raced towards another 24 points. A well-timed sweep shot rounded off a clinical display as the Hill march on.
Player of the Match: James Boulton 7-27
2nd XI beat Lingfield by 9 wickets
Travelling to the outskirts of Surrey to play Lingfield made us think well at least it’s not raining for once.
Before the game the team voted for heads at the coin toss, and heads it was, and captain Porter put Lingfield into bat first.
Adam Mackinney set the tone early bowling superb line and length and picked up the wicket of their skipper with a seriously good nip backer to cut the batsman in half.
Metronomic bowling from seamers Ian Exworth and CNS really helped build pressure with Charlie picking up figures of 2-8 off his 7 overs and Ian with figures of 2-16 off 12 overs.
The pressure meant that runs were need quickly for Lingfield which fell right into the hands most importantly the fingers of spinner Sam Fullicks who picked up figures of 4-32 (including a send-off) who’s last 24 hours was only getting better after a certain football result.
James Everett only needed 4 balls to complete the innings picking up the last wicket of one of the more animated batsman I’ve seen.
Cleaning up Lingfield for a modest 105 with plenty overs to bat the Hill knew that this should be an easy chase.
Adam Oliver and John Cadogan led the Hill out and got them off to a good start getting to a 50 partnership in pretty brisk time.
JC however was the man to go failing to connect with a pull shot with the ball looping perfectly into the hands of a grateful mid-wicket.
However, Adam continued batting putting away the bad balls when they came and defending the good balls.
Adam was joined at the crease by Jordan Gomez who hit a monstrous six early on in his innings which the bowler went “oh my!” in shock as to how far it went. Another six went perilously close to the video camera that would have only compounded Lingfield’s day.
A moment to forget however for Adam when he mis-timed a short pitched delivery and then the impact came a short break was then needed to have a moment to catch his breath.
Some reserved batting from Gomez on balls that possibly could have got the same treatment as balls before, this allowed Adam to get to his first league 50 off 84 deliveries with some poor fielding to seal the half century with a boundary.
Gomez finished the game with another lusty blow for his third six of the innings to see the Hill home and edging closer and closer to a well-deserved promotion.
Player of the Match: Adam Oliver 51* and his first league half-century.
3rd XI beat Staines and Laleham by 6 wickets
A win is a win, but we made harder work of it than we should have. It was good to get out after the last two washouts, but we were all a bit rusty!
Having won the toss & decided to bowl, the twin Bs, Butt & Barratt kept a tight lid on things with George’s first 4 overs being maidens. Tahir was his usual self & picked up wickets created by George’s pressure. We soon had Staines and Laleham 40-4 but then the wickets dried up with solid partnership with more than a little luck. The change bowlers all struggled to keep the pressure on apart from DC bowling his darts.
S&L ended on 150 which was never going to be enough runs on a track that got slower & slower. The S&L bowlers compensated for that by bowling more than a handful of beamers. Thornley & Cinders saw us to halfway before Paul was out eyeing up the hockey pitch! JJ was caught having top edged another full toss. ENS accelerated the running pushing Cinders to his 50 which contain very few boundaries. Both were out with 30 runs still needed but Warren with DC got us over the line in the 32 over. DC playing the most exquisite cover drives.
Roll on Kingstonians in a must win game to keep us in the hunt for second.
Player of the Match: Ed Cinderey with a match winning half century
4th XI beat Sunbury by 3 wickets
The 4s who were propping up the table, faced promotion chasing Sunbury. Winning the toss we decided to bowl. Ryan and PZ set about a tidy opening spell and Ryan wasted little time in breaking through. Sunbury’s them set about the Hill attack with some big hitting. However, a change of pace and some off spin from JF changed that with the big hitter missing a slower one and being bowled. Things changed quickly with DMac and the very impressive James AP tying down the batting. 2 great catches from Owens and some superb fielding further restricted Sunbury. JF completed 8 overs for 12 runs and JAP bowled 6 with 4 maidens taking 3 for 3. Some superb keeping by Lewis kept extras to a minimum.
Hill lost Farooq early in the chase and when Owens run himself out and walked round the block fully kitted with bat in hand to calm down, things got shaky. Some steady batting from Omar made things easier, but then another silly run out arrived. With 30 need PZ and JAP fell quickly. At this point JF turned to youth. Sending Lewis and DMac to the crease. Their professional approach, way above their years saw Hill home.
Player of the Match: Lewis for his combined excellent keeping and professional approach to winning the game when batting. Hill move above Camberley and off the bottom of the table.
5th XI beat Phoenix CC by 4 wickets
Occasionally feisty and combative affair on Saturday saw HHCC bat and bowl well to first bowl out a fairly scratchy Phoenix for 128 (74/8 at one stage before a late flurry by their number 9). Joe Steel being the pick of the bowlers with 3 wickets and could have had more with 2 dropped catches, ably assisted by Louis McCartney with 7 very tidy overs 1 wicket for 7 runs, Will Aust, Arsh and Ben Blackshire, all the Bowlers (except the Earl) got a tick in the wickets column and but for the flurry would have had them all out for under a ton.
Howard and Nish opened the batting and with Nish spending 4 overs swinging and missing he suddenly found his eye and smacked the ball all over for 31 before going for one too many. Skipper Howard posted his highest score for the Hill with a 30 and this partnership put on 55 for the first wicket and laid the ground well. A bit of nerves in the 80’s saw 4 wickets fall cheaply before a quick fire 24 from Arsh got us close to the line with Charlie Murphy playing very cool for a well-chosen 9 not out and hitting the winning runs.
Highlights included a running disgruntlement between their skipper and Fahey (who rightly gave me not out LBW in the first over and their skipper moaned about it for his entire 8 overs!), constant appealing almost every ball by the keeper with Adam pointing out that “tradition dictates that to be out caught the batsmen actually had to hit the ball and for LBW has to hit his pads!”
To give Howard his first win as HHCC skipper.
Player of the Match: Arsh Ahuja with good bowing spell and runs when we needed them.
Sunday Away XI beat Kingstonian by 7 runs
Put into bat on a slowish green wicket, HHCC’s openers Farooq Bosan (14) and Pete Zonneveld (29) gave us a strong base with a partnership of 56 in 13 overs. Run making was never easy and the Hill scored only 4 boundaries in its total. Simon Burke (37) anchored the second half our innings with Taz (13) also making a contribution. A total of 129 was a fair effort given the slowness of the pitch and outfield and good Kingstonian bowling.
Kingstonian started brightly but were checked by openers Taz and Farooq who took 2 early wickets and by 2 tremendous catches by Pete Zonneveld. All the bowlers did well and the wickets were spread around - run out with 3 took the most wickets with Farooq assisting Chris with the first, securing the second with a direct hit and keeping cool to take the final wicket and get the Hill over the line.
Player of the Match: Pete Zonneveld with 29 runs, an analysis of 8-2-15-1 and 2 great catches.
Sunday Home XI beat Kingstonian by 5 wickets
Some wickets for Tommy and all impeccable in the field. Some chances came and went but everyone backed each other to take the next one etc.
Tommy (2-18) was robbed of at least one more wicket (top order bat) by ‘Sunday umpiring’ and painfully to admit, beat me with the seam behind the sticks.
Will Aust bowled the best spell of leg spin I’ve seen in a while, unlucky not to get some more. With figures of 2-25.
Danny Mac opened up and really helped set a solid platform with Paul for our middle order.
Sammy FU dumped a bowler over the wall. On his way to a fine 38 not out. Looking good for A-Level PE videos!
Adam Mac peppered them and seamed one into a thigh-guardless middle order bat, huge.
Rhino had a great day in the field, some fantastic energy and got unlucky with the bat, just needs to be patient - one to watch with ball and bat.
Jamie Hillier started poorly with two bad balls and then bowled an extremely tight and very fruitful spell staying patient on a length, beautiful to watch. Getting to his first 5fer with figures of 5-46.
Goubert struggled to find his hooping outswing but stayed with it and found a few fine seeds some of which actually swinging the other way.
Mallet played two of the best cricket shots I’ve seen him play. Gorgeous shot to get off the mark really leant into it crashing into mid-on. Before unfortunately chipping one back to the bowler.
Paul Thornley just did Paul Thornley things, made their bowling look normal on his way to 38.
The Hill chased down 137 with 15 overs to spare.
Player of the Match: Jamie Hillier with a superb 5fer.
