NORTH Herts Schools’ top two teams – Greneway and Hitchin Boys – came together for the District final at the beautifully prepared Stevenage cricket club recently.

NORTH Herts Schools’ top two teams – Greneway and Hitchin Boys – came together for the District final at the beautifully prepared Stevenage cricket club recently.

Both teams were eager to get started as they had already experienced the disappointment of the game being postponed the previous week.

It was Greneway’s captain Callum Pinner who led his team out to the field first after winning the toss. It was down to vice-captain Ryan Judge to open the bowling and the field were set and ready put the opening batsmen under pressure.

Despite some good line and length from Judge and Justin Leavers at the opposite end the opening batsmen were able to show some great timing to strike the ball around the field, but this was matched by some outstanding fielding from Ben Watson bravely diving to his left and Richard Jonas saving a boundary after some quick foot work.

The runs continued to add up until Judge, Leavers and Freddy Stuart all made confident catches to take wickets. It was then the turn of Matt Moore and Robbie Ponting to start their series of overs and both showed good action, but this was being matched by Pitts and Burrows who both found their way to 30, despite some very accomplished fielding from Kyran Cassidy, Callum Goodall, Edward Atkins and Conor Eustace.

Hitchin Boys finished their innings on an impressive 154-4 from their 20 overs. As Greneway left the field they knew they had put in a solid performance, but despite this, they knew they had a big target in front of them.

It was down to Pinner and Moore to open the batting and both started confidently with some smart shots and it was Moore who found the gap in the field first to put the first score on the board.

Pinner continued to bat confidently and was eventually joined by Freddy Stuart who got straight into the swing of things with a number of well struck boundaries through mid wicket.

Unfortunately Pinner was dismissed when he was caught well at fine leg and this brought in Bradley Calvert to join Stuart. Both players were in the mood for runs and got straight to it with a smart partnership of 30 runs before Calvert also fell to the devilish spin that Mercer and Timm were producing.

As Greneway approached the last over they knew that the target was beyond them, but despite this they continued to work through to the end and were all able to hold their heads up high as they collected their runners-up medals.

They knew that they had been beaten by an exceptional team who had already claimed the County Trophy earlier in the season.