Tuesday 29th June

Midweek Cracker Ends In Close Defeat For Green Caps

An entertaining tour game at Jones’ Lane ended in Harlow Town from Essex coming away with a one wicket win after an afternoon of high drama and plentiful runs. Sean Tongs’ 99 helped by Adriaan De Jager’s 56 and 40 from Richard Last saw the hosts set a challenging 236 from 45 overs. However, in the end it was not enough against a good club side which runs 5 Saturday sides .

 Sean TONGS 99

The visitors Harlow Town bowled first and made the most use out of the new ball by extracting good bounce from the pitch. Hythe openers Adriaan De Jager and Harry Smith survived the new ball barrage for a while before Smith was eventually caught behind.

Soon after Tony North departed for a duck and the completion of a 45 over innings seemed far off. The experienced Sean Tongs came in at four and looked to steady the ship. Initially Tongs and De Jager started cautiously but once the change bowlers came on they began to attack.

A brief burst of rain was not enough to halt play but helped to dampen the fielder’s spirits as the Hythe pair got into their strides. When a wicket eventually fell it was De Jager who was caught at deep mid-on soon after reaching his half century.

Tongs, who had already reached his fifty, then set about building another partnership with new batsman Richard Last. They both punished the bad balls and kept up a rapid run rate as the Green Caps pushed over 200.

Agonisingly Tongs was caught off a full toss one short of a deserved ton, but his 99 included two sixes and 14 fours. Last was eventually bowled for 40 and Andy Woods was run out for two as Hythe scrambled for extra runs at the end. Matt Young hit 10 not out to help the final total reach 236.

In their reply, Harlow Town lost an early wicket when Russell Moore has the opening batsman caught behind in his first over. Rob Saunders then picked up two wickets at the other end as he bowled his nine overs straight through.

Unfortunately, the fielding from Hythe was below par and in the end cost the team dearly. Five penalty runs from the ball striking the ‘keepers helmet summing up the early fielding errors.

Harlow were always ahead of the run rate but the hosts kept picking up wickets with De Jager, Harry Smith, Kev McCarthy and the returning Moore all taking wickets to keep the pressure on.

With only a few runs to win, Hythe made a double strike as both Richard Last and Adriaan De Jager clean bowled an opposition batsman to leave the visitors nine down. In the end, a guided shot through gully ran to the boundary to hand Harlow Town an exciting one wicket victory.

Innings of : HYTHE XI 236 For 6 (45 Overs)

Harlow Town Bowling

Innings of : HARLOW TOWN 237 For 9 (20 Overs)

Hythe XI Bowling

RESULT : HARLOW TOWN Beat HYTHE XI by 1 Wkt