Callum Sykes reaches century as Bishop’s Stortford III beat Bengeo in Tees Herts & Essex Border Cricket League

Callum Sykes hit an unbeaten score of 139 to lead Bishop’s Stortford III to a seven-wicket home win against Bengeo in the Tees Herts & Essex Border League, Premier Division on Saturday (June 29).

He was supported by Adrian Wacey (61no) and they managed to put up an unbroken stand of 177 for the fourth wicket, which saw the hosts recover from a slow start and reach 225-3.

Ollie Diamond took 3-43 for the away side, who had earlier posted 221-7. Will Lambert was the pick of the Stortford bowlers with 4-38.

It was a disappointing day for the first team as they suffered a five-wicket defeat at North Mymms in the Saracens Hertfordshire League, Premier Division.

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The visitors lost an early wicket before Joe Burslem and Joe Hawkins made the score 47-1 at the first drinks break.

Burslem was hit by Will Jones’ bowling and became the first of four victims. He collapsed.

Jonathan Gaffney (16), Dom Clutterbuck (28 no) and Richie Heywood (18) added lower-order runs to take their side to 140 in the 49th over, giving the hosts 66 overs to achieve their target.

Stortford started well and regained control when Simon Lindop took a wicket in the third over, followed by Heywood claiming two scalps, including prolific overseas Viv Paver.

When Clutterbuck and Ben Twohig took the wickets the score was 61-5 and the match appeared to be in the balance.

But Jones (41no) linked up with Armaan Randdhawa (51no) at the crease and they batted sensibly to guide the hosts to 141-5 in the 39th over.

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There was a tense ending when the second team went down by two wickets at home to Old Fincleians in Division 2B.

Everyone did their bit with runs for the hosts, who reached 172-9 in their 50 overs.

Haitel Patel, Murray Davidson and Austin Osborne all made 24, while James Frans (18 no) and Will Nutt (15) hit 32 for the ninth wicket.

Tim Smith (3-14) had the ball in his reply but a partnership of 81 runs on the fifth wicket turned the tide in Old Fincleians’ favour and they needed 26 runs from the last 10 overs.

Osborne (2-29) and Nutt (2-52) threw well in the final stages, but their opponents reached the total with eight balls to go.

The fourth team lost by seven wickets to leaders Takeley in HEBL Division One.

Stortford, who won the toss, struggled with the bat and lost wickets regularly to post an under-par 199-8. Ant Foster and Fraaz Ahmed both scored 34.

Takeley eased to 202-3 as Chris Thake made 65 and Vamsi Madhav remained unbeaten on 75.

• Cricketfield Lane will host three matches this summer during the inaugural Over-70s World Cup, which takes place from 28 July to 11 August.

The games in Stortford will be played by Wales, who will take on Canada (Thursday, August 1), New Zealand (Tuesday, August 6) and England (Thursday, August 8). Entrance is free.