SATURDAY saw the start of the season for Town in a rescheduled Essex Shepherd Neame Cup match away to South Woodford. With weather affecting the pre-season fixtures and a few new faces, captain Daniel Farmer and team were raring to go.

ON a blistering summers day but soft on foot, Farmer had won the toss and chose to field. This saw 2 of the new additions to the side with Suraj Chauhan & Mark Quant lined up with the new ball. Both started well by making it difficult to score and led to Chauhan picking up the early wickets of both opening batsman. This was followed by Farmer and Eversden, resulting in Eversden taking the wicket of Neicho and leaving the hosts of 49-3.

At this point the South Woodford Captain Craddock was joined at the crease by Jaspal and both took advantage of any loose deliveries accelerating the score. Farmer tried most of his bowling options to get the break through and eventually Daniel Baldwin pinned Jaspal in front for 79 with the score on 248. Craddock kept going through the gears, finally finishing on 114 and his team looking at posting a strong score. Chauhan came back to finish the innings and skittled the lower order finishing with figures of 6 for 28 on debut and South Woodford all out for 301.

In reply openers Baldwin and Ashley Alderson looked to dust any cobwebs off and give the side the solid start they needed. The early wicket fell with Baldwin adjudged LBW 1. Chauhan was in next and hit a quickfire 36 keeping Town with the rate however wickets fell gradually with Alderson finally falling for a well-crafted 46. A bit of a flurry of runs towards the end from Shaun Alderson (22) and Eversden (21 not out) but Town fell well short on 184 thanks to good bowling throughout from South Woodford with Jaspal (4 for 39) and Copper (4 for 30).

The Second XI beat South Woodford’s in the reverse friendly fixture by 23 runs. Town posted 193-3 in their 35 overs with Jibram Azam scoring 104 and Ben Tyne (40 not out). In reply South Woodford were 170 all out with Simon Rowell taking 6 for 33 including a hat trick.

This weekend’s fixtures see the start league in both the Essex Shepherd Neame and Herts & Essex with the 1’s hosting Loughton, 2’s away to Epping, 3’s at home to Westcliffe-on-Sea and 4’s away to Tye Green.