Scorecard

Hitchin CC 1st XI v St Albans Cricket Club 1XI on Sat 04 Jul 2026 at 12:00
St Albans Cricket Club Won by 8 wickets

Match report On Saturday’s gone past in 2026 the trips on the road haven’t been particularly pleasant for St Albans 1s. In fact whilst sitting 3rd in the table and with a chance to even go top with a win on Saturday, Saints were still yet to record a win on the road this season.

Fortunately we were playing at Hitchin, a ground that seems to yield runs in every game apart from when St Albans come to town. Come to town we did, although the home side must have been rather hopeful that the 30 points had been handed to them. The majority of the St Albans team arriving 15 minutes before the toss, but on the plus side this was better preparation than the previous year where the warm up consisted of Señor Winfield and Patriot Perrin bowling at each other on the live stream.

A warm up eventually ensued, Adshead fortunate not to find himself on the wrong end of an argument with the mound this time round. Captain Baylis won the toss and elected to bowl on a half and half, green and beige wicket.

The early signs couldn’t have been worse. Hitchin unbeaten at home all season looked full of confidence with the first over going for 9 and a long day seemed in store. Fortunately, with the first ball of the next over the batsman hit a massive chunk out of the ball forcing it to be replaced with a brand new one. Once again the Herts League balls showing their superb resilience in the opening 5 overs. However, the new ball we’d been given must have been one out of Will Rooney’s kit bag as he started to tear through the Hitchin top order claiming the 2 and 3 in the same over, both nipping back through the gate and taking the stumps. Jones followed up by claiming the other opener plumb in front playing an absolutely dreadful shot and all of a sudden Hitchin were 22-3. The very next ball Jones bowled a half volley on middle stump hitting the batsman square on the ankles. Going over?

The two Will’s kept building pressure and Hitchin’s 2 key batsmen managed to keep them at bay, in particular Toqeer Hussain, the league’s leading run scorer averaging a rather scary 116 going into the game. We say this, but sometimes even the best can fall into a simple trap set by St Albans. Jones opting for a deep square leg and bowling at Hussain. He gleefully clips him away with the wind down to that exact person, which so happened to be the ever reliable hands of Ben Adshead. Adshead going in, out, then taking the catch leading to huge celebrations and a Bellingham esque celebration just behind square. 33-4, Saints hugely in control with the league’s best bat back in the shed.

Stunned silence swept across Lucas Lane and boundaries began to be difficult to come by. The newly introduced Baylis similarly to Rooney struck twice in his second over, both LBWs hitting the back pad in front of all 3. Stuart in no doubt to raise the finger on both occasions, what a man.

Adshead followed suit with a nip backer removing the number 5 who had accumulated 20 odd, and all of a sudden Hitchin sat at a rather embarrassing 57-7. Partnerships then began to gather momentum, in particular the Hitchin number 9 who played well for 34 not out, but the pitch had also definitely begun to flatten out. Fortunately that didn’t really matter for the 8th wicket as the Hitchin number 8 decided to leave another Adshead nip backer giving the umpire the easiest decision he’ll have all season, and the Hitchin 10 snicked off to Rooney well held by Bancroft to leave them 85-9.

From here we just somehow couldn’t get the 9 and 11 out. They batted well, we could have bowled better. The score leapt up to 141 before burglar Capaldi was back to his normal ways completing the innings with a short ball smashed down Perrin’s throat at deep mid wicket. Whilst Hitchin had definitely ended up on more than they should have done, 141 seemed well below par and would take some bowling performance to defend on an improving wicket.
Following a rather focused interval Regan and Bancroft went out to open the batting in front of a wedding and the ever growing Hitchin massive. They all had quite a bit to shout about early on as both were removed fairly cheaply. Hitchin were pumped and believing the game was firmly in their grasp.

Fortunately, we couldn’t have had 2 people better placed to weather the initial storm. Joe Regan and Will Jones both batted superbly, putting bad balls away for 4 and finding singles to the fielders who were sat slightly deeper. The introduction of spin meant the scoring rate went down slightly, and Hitchin did everything they could to build some pressure. Joe was winner of the shot of the day, as he continued to time the pants off everything, including one straight into the keeper’s gloves. Umpire not moved.

Jones began to play some more expansive strokes especially over cow and long on, and all of a sudden the chase was all but complete. Hitchin’s gun bat came on and bowled 2 overs of short balls that helped us get there in double quick time, just 2 wickets down meaning we had kept Hitchin down to just 5 bonus points. We leapfrog them in the table as a result.

Saints now sit second just 2 behind leaders Reed. With a tough availability week ahead it is far from done, but with all the remaining games against the top half teams being at home, you’d have to fancy St Albans’ chances at the halfway stage.

MOTM: Will Jones 53* & 2-30
SOTD: Joe Regan cover drive for 4
HMOTD: Ben ‘Bellingham’ Adshead catch to remove the Hitchin pro
DOTD: Max Capaldi (welcome back)

Hitchin CC 1st XI Batting
Player name RunsMB4s6sSR
extras
TOTAL :
2nb 12w 1lb 
for 10 wickets
15
141 (42.4 overs)		     
Sanjay Chandarana lbw  W Jones 16 26 3 61.54
Luke Day b  W Rooney 1 6 16.67
Sam Rippington b  W Rooney 0 3 0
Toqeer Hussain ct  B Adshead b W Jones 4 17 23.53
Shaftab Khalid lbw  B Adshead 23 39 4 58.97
Matthew Maylin lbw  D Baylis 6 41 14.63
Jonathan Huggins lbw  D Baylis 4 2 1 200
Samuel Bayley lbw  B Adshead 17 17 3 100
Fin Thomson Not Out  34 54 5 62.96
Kian Postlethwaite ct  W Bancroft b W Rooney 3 12 25.00
Duncan Howells ct  S Perrin b M Capaldi 18 40 2 1 45.00

St Albans Cricket Club 1XI Bowling

Player NameOversMaidensRunsWicketsAverageEconomy
Will Jones10.0230215.003.00
Will Rooney10.042237.332.20
Dan Baylis10.0140220.004.00
Ben Adshead9.0222211.002.44
Max Capaldi3.4026126.007.09

St Albans Cricket Club 1XI Batting
Player Name RMB4s6sSRCatchesStumpingsRun outs
extras
TOTAL :
14w 11lb 
for 2 wickets
25
142		        
Jamie Regan b  S Rippington 0 1 0
Will Bancroft b  D Howells 5 20 1 25.00 1
Joe Regan Not Out  59 79 8 74.68
Will Jones Not Out  53 81 8 1 65.43
Oliver Coulman  
Steven Perrin   1
Tom McCormick  
Max Capaldi  
Will Rooney  
Ben Adshead   1
Dan Baylis  

Hitchin CC 1st XI Bowling

Player nameOversMaidensRunsWicketsAverageEconomy
Sam Rippington5.0120120.004.00
Duncan Howells5.0312112.002.40
Fin Thomson7.002700.003.86
Shaftab Khalid5.011600.003.20
Kian Postlethwaite3.001500.005.00
Samuel Bayley3.102200.006.95
Toqeer Hussain2.001900.009.50