Histon v Phoenix (BHL)

Histon, away, Business House League
Phoenix won by 7 wickets

Jeff’s unbeaten half century made sure of a third straight Business House League victory against a very youthful Histon side. This time fielding on a big outfield against batters enjoying a trouble free strip didn’t seem quite as painful as the previous week although we did have to retrieve a fair few boundaries early on. George caught the bigger-hitting opener in the deep off Stuart R, who soon forced the replacement to play on, but we never did get to find out just where the Histon tail began as bat number four smote his way to a quickfire 71. The remaining opener had slowed down considerably however and we managed the later stages pretty well to leave ourselves hunting down 148 to win. Aidan was dropped on 0 but that let off plus a stream of wides from an array of inexperienced bowlers allowed our opening pair to post 83 before Aidan was finally caught in the deep.
Jeff, his barking calling loud and clear as ever, had been the senior partner thanks to singles scurried regularly in amongst some more ruthless hits, including a big six. Damon hit two boundaries before he was caught, and Gareth three until he suffered the same fate, which meant we were always on course. Val found the ropes twice to bring the inevitable ever closer and Jeff, having scampered through for a faultless 50, made sure with successive boundaries off the Histon top scorer.

Histon
M Parish c Rolls b Rushby 16
J Barker not out 34
D Ball b Rushby 4
A Brolia not out 71
Extras 22
Total: 147 off 15 8-ball overs

F Lee 3-0-25-0
S Rushby 3-0-27-2
T Harrison 3-0-26-0
G Rolls 3-0-29-0
Venki 3-0-28-0
J West 1-0-8-0

Phoenix
A Swain c Rory b Joss 24
J Wilson not out 58
D Rainsford c Brolia b Mellish 12
G Everson c Ball b Freddie 16
V Biswas not out 8
Extras 30
Total: 148-3 in 13.4 8-ball overs