THINGS continue to get worse for Royston as they suffered a six wicket home lose against Fordham. Having been relegated from Division One of the Tucker Gardner League last season, Adam Newman s side are now rooted to the bottom of Division Two. Batting fi

THINGS continue to get worse for Royston as they suffered a six wicket home lose against Fordham.

Having been relegated from Division One of the Tucker Gardner League last season, Adam Newman's side are now rooted to the bottom of Division Two.

Batting first, Royston made a decent start and at 89-3 at the half-way point Craig Holson and Rik Bentley looked well set to take Royston to a score of 200 or more.

However, there was the usual middle order batting collapse as Royston slumped to 109-8.

43 from Richard Temple, along with some stout defence from the tail-enders, enabled Royston to creep up to 156 all out, a total that always looked 30 to 40 runs short on a fast outfield, but at least gave them a chance.

Royston began well in the field, with wickets from Temple and Newman reducing the visitors to 15-2 off 10 overs.

Once again, though, Royston's back-up bowling struggled and they were only able to take two further wickets as Fordham reached their victory target with 17 overs and four wickets to spare, Darren Theobald making 83 not out.

Team manager Richard Temple admitted that his side desperately need another bowler.

"Again, it was a disappointing performance that was typical of how we've played this season," he said.

"We had a number of batsmen who have got going, only to then play over-ambitious shots much too early, or show poor technique against accurate bowling on what is proving to be a wicket with variable bounce.

"We're struggling with our back-up bowling as well, with nobody proving to be a consistent first or second change bowler.

"If we could just find someone who can bowl 10 overs for 30 runs in the middle order then we'd look a very different team.

"Not having a spinner, or anyone who takes some pace off the ball, is also a problem for us. The only plus point was the fielding, which was much improved from the previous week.

Baldock Town finally got the victory they have been striving for on Saturday in a nail biter against Hatch End.

On winning the toss Hatch End decided to bat and on a steamy and hot day they set about building a opening partnership and this they did putting on 40 without loss before Andrew Taylor nipped out the left hander Richardson for a painful 17.

Within the next five overs Baldock took two more as Taylor got rid of the dangerous Norjaria for a big hitting 42 and Alistair Jones bowled the number three to leave the visitors 70-3.

There was a brief recovery until Tim Dean pouched two wickets in quick succession and things were looking rosy for Baldock.

But Hatch End's lowere middle order batted sensibly and made there way to a highly competitive 213 all out off 49.3 overs.

Baldocks reply was solid enough as the Peacock brothers put on 27 and when James Peacock and Andrew Taylor took the score to 81 the game looked in Baldock's cocntrol.

But as ever there was a little wobble as the hosts found themselves 85-3 and in need of some repair work.

This came in the form of a 81 run partnership between Graham Letford and skipper Rob Cant. The pair batted with care and precision and ran well to take Baldock to a position of real strength at 166-4 with nine overs left and wickets in hand.

The wicket of Cant for 36 however led to a small collapse taking the score to 186-7 and when Letford was run out for a well constructed 59 Baldock had some work to do with 15 needed off two overs.

Then another wicket fell and the nerves began to show.The last pair scrambled some runs and took the game to the last over and with five balls left Logan Newman smashed a four to bring the scores level.

He then waited till the last ball to sneak the winning run and send his awaiting team mates in to raptures of delight as Baldock ran out winners by one wicket.

On a blisteringly hot Saturday, Baldock II secured a comfortable victory against Clifton II. Losing the toss, Baldock were asked to field, and it was not long before two wickets by Phil Lucy had put Clifton under pressure.

However, an excellent 82 by Boorman ensured that Clifton were heading towards a respectable total, and it was not until an excellent spell by Ben Diplock that Baldock were able to dominate Clifton.

Clifton's innings ended on 162 all out, Ben Diplock taking a superb 6-23 runs, ably supported by Phil Lucy with 2-28.

Baldock's reply got off to a superb start, with a partnership of 72 between Andy Diplock (49) and Richie Waters (28). and with Mark Lewis adding 42 not out they wrapped the win 13 overs to spare.