The 1st XI took on another unbeaten side, Hertingfordbury, at their picturesque village ground on a nice day for a white wedding, and indeed there was one taking place at the church next door. Skipper Josh Edwins returned to form after last week’s aberration by losing the toss and Hertingfordbury chose to bat first.

After the speeches - a moment to remember that there is more to life than cricket as one of the opposition players explained the importance of getting checked for prostate cancer, and another his related fundraising effort to climb Mt Kilimanjaro in October, which you can donate to here - Dave Emerson opened the ceremonies from the church end, and Jerry Jamil steamed in downhill from the pavilion end. Jerry struck first, nipping one back in to rap the pad and earn an LBW, before Dave also took a wicket via a wide “tempter” and a very healthy inside edge.

EB followed their recent pattern of keeping the bowling tight and building pressure to take wickets, with Junaid Ashiq and Nick Pearson taking over and Nicko earning the reward of the 3rd wicket, sharply caught behind by Lee Gauntlett. As the church bells rang out, Stefan “Something Borrowed” Bennett, called up after shining in the 2s, and the skipper himself were next into the attack. After Stefan made the breakthrough when the no. 5 picked out Joe Braddon in the deep who took a good catch, wickets started to tumble, Stefan finishing with 2 for 30 from his 10 overs, Junaid taking the catch for his second. So often the bridesmaid of the bowling figures, Josh was this time the bride with a miserly 3 for 11 from his 10, including 5 maidens (two bowled with unusually accurate quicker balls and another catch for Lee).

Junaid came back to mop up the last two wickets, one well caught by Nicko and the last wicket clean bowled to leave Hertingfordbury 125 all out, and EB heading off for the breakfast in confident mood, Azeem Akhtar in particular concerned about further potential pad rash.

The first dance of our batting innings went well as Andy “Something Old” Norris and Lee “Something Blue” Gauntlett after throwing himself around and wearing a few behind the stumps compiled a 79-run opening stand made of putting away the bad balls and keeping out the good ones. Unfortunately both fell in the 30s, first Lee for 39 from 36 balls, and then Andy for 37 from 45. The evening buffet was then brought out for Hertingfordbury’s bowlers as we did our best to make the game interesting. First Azeem was out for 2, then Junaid for 9, Joe for 6, and then absolute fantasy cricket carnage as Nicko, Stefan and Jerry were all dismissed without scoring.

Throughout the mayhem, Owen “Something New” Brown was, as always, cool, calm and collected at the other end. He was joined by Josh Edwins with 13 needed to win, and they batted well with the skipper hitting with winning runs with a (very) short-arm pull for 4, much to the relief of everyone but especially potential last man Dave. Owen was 18 not out at the end, perhaps not his highest score in recent times but another match-winning knock. Hertingfordbury’s Elliott Smyth finished with 5 for 35.

A game that perhaps got a bit closer than it should have been, but the honeymoon phase continues for the 1sts as they made it 4 from 4, next week we welcome Hatfield & Crusaders to The Rye.