Belmont & Edgware Cricket Club’s (BECC) two sides may have failed to win at the weekend, but both took plenty of encouragement even in defeat.
The slightly depleted first XI narrowly lost their league game at Datchworth after a 34-run partnership for the tenth wicket wasn’t quite enough to see the team over the line.
After winning the toss and deciding to field, captain Adam Morris started an excellent day for the team in the field with a sharp catch at slip – the start of a day when BECC held onto every chance they created. A simple catch at cover gave Scott Gerard his third wicket of the day after he clean-bowled two Datchworth batsmen to continue his fine season with the ball.
BECC kept chipping away with wickets throughout the innings, with each bowler getting in on the act. Josh Reynolds took a good low catch before veteran David Kaplan produced the moment of the day with a stunning take over his shoulder having covered a lot of ground to make the catch while young Alfie Davis took two late wickets to limit the target to 188.
BECC got off to a steady start in reply, but took some time to rebuild after Uriel Lev was bowled and leading run-scorer Dan Humphrey was dismissed with an LBW decision. Some sensible batting from Joel Greenbaum and Emanuel Latchman kept the scoreboard ticking over steadily in the knowledge that the bigger hitters were still to come. However when they arrived at the crease those bigger hitters failed to live up to expectations, with the exception of Aron Davis who continued his excellent form with a brisk but brutal 32 off 18.
With batsmen falling around him, Davis knew he had to take more risks and eventually holed out, leaving the team 50 runs away with just one wicket left. Numbers 10 and 11 Kaplan and Josh Webber batted sensibly and smartly to chip away at that target with regular, risk-free boundaries, but it was too little too late as Kaplan was caught with the target still 14 runs away.
Morris said: “This was a game we got ourselves in a really good position to win but too many wickets in quick succession meant we’d left ourselves too much to do. A real shame given the hard work we’d done to keep the opposition to a gettable target, with a fantastic standard of catching in particular, but we can lean into that in the next few weeks.
“Taking a step back though, as we head into the height of the summer months when people start going on holiday, we don’t look past the success of providing cricketing opportunities for 22 guys on a hot Sunday afternoon, which is ultimately what it’s all about.”
Closer to home in Southgate, the club’s Second XI were also in action with some senior figures leading an inexperienced side who put up a good fight in a losing cause. Taking the field first, BECC restricted Southgate to 207-9 off their 35 overs, with Joshi Chaim picking up 3-35 and Yeshaya Gross taking 2-41. In reply, most batsmen got themselves in but weren’t really able to stick around and kick on though Gross continued his good day by top scoring with 21.
In a team whose batting depth had been depleted, reaching 126 was a decent effort, but ultimately not enough to prevent an 81-run defeat.
Both sides are looking ahead to an exciting few weeks with T20 action, a league game and a friendly before the annual Club Day in a few weeks’ time.
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