Sunday 01st September 2024.
The full I.C.C. squad turned up at Stevenage bright and early on Sunday morning to play a double-header friendly I.C.C. match against Cambridge. Once all Cambridge players had arrived and four competition mats were in place with a fifth mat in place for anyone to use for a bit of practice, the morning match got underway. The standard I.C.C. format was in use but with a reduced number of ends.
Session one started with singles and pairs playing nine ends instead of the usual fifteen. Winning one single, one pair and sneaking a draw in the second pair, Hertfordshire were of to a good start with a 5 – 3 lead after the first session. The triples and fours were straight onto the mats playing seven and six ends. The second session saw Hertfordshire and Cambridgeshire take a triple and a fours each, at the end of the second session Hertfordshire were maintaining their two-point lead. Session three and the singles and pairs were back on the mats. This session saw both Hertfordshire singles win their games, also winning one of the pairs, Hertfordshire increased their lead to 15 – 9. With the bonus points for singles and pairs shared the score was now 17 – 11 with one session to go. The last session of the morning match got underway at 12.00, all on schedule for lunch at 13.00. The final session saw Hertfordshire triumph again. Winning three of the four mats pushed the score to 23 – 13. The Bonus points for the triples and fours, like the singles and pairs were once again shared giving a final score for the morning match a win for Hertfordshire at 25 – 15, and for those of you that wish to know, the total shots were also in Hertfordshire’s favour 116 – 99.
Following a quick lunch break, Hertfordshire had a complete team reshuffle. Session one of the afternoon got under way with the singles and pairs. Cambridgeshire won the first single and drew the second, the pairs mats shared one win each. Cambridge had a short lead of 5 – 3 after the first session. The triples and fours took over the mats for the second session. Hertfordshire won both triples but Cambridgeshire took both fours to maintain their lead at 9 – 7. Our singles and pairs then returned to the mats for session three. With Cambridgeshire winning on all four mats they now extended their lead to 17 – 7. Although we lost all four mats, three of them were only by one shot and the fourth was only by three shots. With the games being close we managed to gain the bonus points for the pairs but not the singles. This meant the score was 19 – 9 to Cambridge going into the last session. Cambridgeshire continued their winning streak by taking all four mats in the last session and holding on to the bonus points for both disciplines. The final score was a good win for Cambridgeshire 31 – 9 with the total shots 136 – 105.
With a win apiece the day ended up a draw, a good outcome for two I.C.C . teams looking forward to getting their first matches of the new season under their belt.
The next outing for our I.C.C. squad is in three weeks on the 22nd of September. Our first I.C.C. match will be on the 03rd November when we will be away to West Midlands at their home ground in Solihull.
Would you like to be included in the Squad day or even like to play in the first I.C.C. match. In order to play you need to let the I.C.C. selectors be aware that you are interested. The way to do this is to mark yourself as available on the Hertfordshire website. All existing I.C.C. squad members are registered on the website and know how to do this. If you are not part of the I.C.C. squad but would like to be considered then the best way forward is to register on the website. Once registered, if you ‘Logon’ to the website then additional menu selections will be available to you and you can mark your availability under the County Tab. Many of our regulars have now marked their availability for the six events currently listed on the website. There is still time for more of our Hertfordshire membership to add their names to this expanding availability list. If you don’t let us know you are available how will your selectors know you would like to be considered for inclusion in our Hertfordshire squad.
If you have any problems with the website then email the team at our unique email address herts.icc@gmail.com
On a different note Hatfield is now open again every Tuesday night from 19.30. With the Barnet League starting again on Tuesday the 17th September why not come along and get some practice in before your first match. With the possibility to use six mats there will always be at least one mat available for a roll up every Tuesday night. Hopefully see some of you there.