ON a blisteringly hot summers day, Harlow’s 5th Xl won the toss and decided to bowl first.

Opening bowling pair of Lia Fisk and Benjamin Dack kept it on a great line and length to not only pick up a wicket each but they managed to keep runs down on a very fast outfield.

After 10 over we introduced Lawrence Forde into the attack and from five overs he picked up 3 wickets to keep Harlow in with a sniff at drinks.

The Bishop’s Stortford batters looked as if they were used to a T20 format with the start they had. The boundaries were very short and enticing, but that only aided the Harlow bowlers to pick up wickets regularly. At the half-way stage, Harlow had restricted their opposition to 123-5.

After a stern word from their team manager, the Bishop’s Stortford batters suddenly changed their scoring methods and quickly rotated the strike and punishing any loose bowling along the ground. This allowed them to have a huge partnership in the middle order, with the batters reaching a half-century and century in the process.

But the re-introduction of Lawrence meant the runs stopped flowing at the end of the innings. He picked up two wickets in two balls to be on a Hat-rick next time he steps up. With these two final wickets, he also collected his first ever senior five wicket haul at the age of 13. Tremendous effort Lawrence – well done! Amazing figures of 5-42 (off 7.2 overs)

Bishops Stortford closed their innings on 303-9. (Their centurion retired after passing 100)

Needing over 7 an over in reply, Ayaz thought he could take this on. Smashing a boundary 4 the very first ball of the innings, only to succumb 2nd ball trying to repeat his feat.

Then we started to fight back and tried hard to dig in to build some partnerships to bring the game back in our favour.

Marious Scholtz played another anchoring innings and punished any loose delivery. He built a partnership with our star of the game Lawrence Forde, and both players looked set to go big. The fight back was on and we began to get the runs on the board.

Needing to find a breakthrough, Stortford introduced spinners of a very high quality, the ball started ripping at right angles and they quickly made light work off the remaining wickets.

Despite Lawrence Forde (24 ) being the last man out he had a truly amazing game and showed just what a gem this young man could be for Harlow CC in the coming years

Unfortunately it’s another defeat but we’re still picking up good bowling points and hanging on in there.

But no doubt about it, the game belonged to Lawrence Forde for us. He was exhausted by the end of the game, but it was a pleasure to be his captain on the day and see him get these achievements.

We hold our heads high and we go onto next week with a smile on our face and know the first win of the season is there if we put all aspects together.