The Villagers recorded their fourth victory of the season, comfortably beating County Hall.

Shenley, asked to bat first, opened with Andy Lewis and Chris Stanley, who made steady progress against some accurate bowling by the County Hall opening pair.

The score moved on to 33 in the 14th over when Lewis was the first to fall, bowled by Mike Brown, for 11. Stanley kept one end safe while the villagers lost two quick wickets with Jemile Al-Darraji failing to trouble the scorers and toe-ending a full-toss to mid-off. Rahul Gajjar was next to go, after hitting three attractive boundaries he was unlucky to chop the ball on to his own stumps.

When Stanley was fourth man out for a good 27, the home side was looking precarious at 61 for 4 with half their overs gone.

The fifth wicket partnership of Steve Scott and St John Fuller set about recovering the innings with some good batting. The partnership was broken after they had added 53 in 19 overs when Scott was caught in the gully for a well played 30, his first league runs for four innings.

The tail then responded well to this turn around in the innings and added 58 runs in the last ten overs, including a useful 19 not out from Ed Lillywhite and a well struck 10 by colt Will Hodge. The home side closed their innings on 179-9 in the 53rd over.

The Villagers immediately put County Hall under pressure, sending three batsmen back with the score still in single figures. Skipper Matt Woodward used his normal opening pair of Lillywhite and Jon Haley. Haley was particularly penetrative, bowling quickly and accurately, he was ably supported by Lillywhite who bowled a very economical spell of ten overs for just nine runs.

Haley accounted for the first four County Hall batters, three clean bowled and one excellently caught at the wicket by Andy Green. Al-Darraji replaced Lillywhite, who bowled with pace and venom.

The bowling was proving too much for the visitors and despite not losing any further wickets they were not making any effort to go for the target. This changed when number five, Rolf started to play big shots, including two successive sixes of the bowling of Al-Darraji.

Woodward changed the bowling around, taking off Haley (13-4-40-4) and asking Al-Darraji to change ends. He then brought himself on to bowl to see if there was any turn in the wicket for his off spin. His first over proved

fruitful, bowling Rolfe for a hard-hitting 42 with his second ball and then claiming another wicket two balls later. County Hall were now six down and still had half their overs to face.

The rest of the visitors batsmen seemed to be keen to get the game over and continued to play extravagant shots, and Woodward was able to finish off the tail with a further three wickets to finish with 5-33. Al-Darragi chipped in with the wicket of opening batsman Carter, who was eighth out for eight in the 33rd over. Shenley recorded a 60 run victory with just over seven overs remaining.

After the match Woodward said: "We showed again today that we are a good team with real depth. Our bowling was superb, County Hall are the fourth league side that we have bowled out for less than 120 this year."

Shenley: Matt Woodward (capt), Andy Lewis, Chris Stanley, Jemile Al-Darraji, Rahul Gajjar, Steve Scott, St John Fuller, Andy Green (wk), Will Hodge, Ed Lillywhite, Jon Haley.

Shenley Village 179-9

County Hall II 119-10

Saracens Herts League

Division Eight

June 19, 2002 13:00