After navigating heavy evening traffic, the Horton House Red Ladies arrived at Guilsborough Playing Fields, ready to face one of the toughest teams from last season—Haddon CC Women’s Midweek.

In the dressing room, Captain Kathryn Monk delivered a stirring speech that set the tone for the match. Horton batted first, but Haddon’s opening bowling pair made life difficult from the start. Scoring runs and even staying in proved challenging as Horton struggled for fluidity. However, the final batting pair of Eryn Currie (23) and debutant Keira Potter (26*) stepped up, quickly finding their rhythm and pushing the score to a total of 136 all out.

At the halfway point, the team took a much-needed break. Captain Monk’s second speech emphasized the importance of accurate bowling and sharp fielding if they were to secure the win. With Haddon known for their strong batting lineup, the Horton ladies were determined to make an impact in the field. Eryn Currie and Erin Holmes, inspired by their captain’s words, delivered some pinpoint bowling. In just the second over, their dangerous batter was sent packing by a brilliant delivery from Erin Holmes.

Monday night training was clearly paying off. The fielding was exceptional, with every player contributing to limiting Haddon’s scoring opportunities. In the 10th over, a sharp delivery from Daisy Bennett-Slush resulted in a wicket, with Keira Potter making an excellent catch behind the stumps.

As the game entered its final overs, the setting sun and dropping temperatures added to the intensity. With the match nearing its conclusion, there was a quick change: Keira took over the bowling, and Cassidy Hawksworth stepped in as wicketkeeper after completing her own bowling spell. Though new to the role, Cassidy was flawless behind the stumps, stopping everything that came her way.

The final over arrived with just 10 runs needed to win, and it was clear that the game would be decided by the last few balls. Keira, rising to the occasion, delivered a match-winning performance. With her first ball of the over, she claimed a vital wicket. The Horton fielders, sharp and focused, limited Haddon to singles before executing a brilliant run out on the fifth ball. With just one ball remaining and Haddon needing 6 runs to win, their batter chased the target, but Keira sealed the game with another wicket.

Haddon ended their innings on 130, leaving them short of the required total. Horton secured their second win of the season, with a thrilling and hard-fought victory!

1st XI vs. Peterborough Town CC 2nd XI

Bright sunshine and a flat looking track greeted the 1st XI as they hosted Peterborough Town CC 2nd XI, at Denton Road. Horton won the toss and elected to bat first. The House got off to a strong start with Arkanath (17) and Parmar (33) going well in the opening overs. Once they had both met their end, Harry Mowat and James Watson (24) kept the scoreboard ticking along. After Watson was bowled by a peach, young Joe Maw came to the wicket at 5. Joe and Harry set about milking the middle overs with maturity well above their age. Harry was smartly caught for 63, just missing the moment of the game – Joe Maw bringing up a maiden 1st XI fifty, off just 58 balls – at just 13 years old. Will Knibbs (20*) continued his rich vein of form as Horton finished on 257-8.

The Peterborough openers showed great intent, and got the innings off to a flier. Will Knibbs (0-40) and Kalpesh Chandracant were frustrated as the ball found its way to boundary off some attacking shots. Kally would make the breakthrough, getting the skipper caught behind after James Watson came up to the stumps to apply some pressure. A fine run out from Arnav Jain and then two wickets in two balls from Chandracant (3-35) blew apart the Peterborough order. Anvit Arkanath came on from The Drive end and continued his fine start to the season, racing through the middle order with 4-18. Anvit took the final wicket as the visitors were dismissed for 104. Horton secured 25 points and now sit 4th in the table.

2nd XI vs. Irthlingborough Town CC 2nd XI

The 2’s made the journey to Irthlingborough for our 4th game of the season. Winning the toss we decided to have a bowl in overhead conditions (at that stage!).
A strong Irthlingborough batting line up, combined with a decent track, quick outfield, numerous dropped catches and inconsistent bowling resulted in a difficult day at the office for the team.

I was however delighted at the way the whole team stuck together and never gave up during a difficult and long 45 overs in the field. There were wickets for Rory Monk (2), James Hawksworth (2) and 1 a piece for Katie Fidler, Harvey Banks, Tom Hodgkinson and Amos Awaghade.

Irthlingborough finished their innings on 308/8.

We set about chasing 308 (6.8 per over) with optimism as the track was decent and the outfield was lightning quick, plus we had a strong batting line up.

Unfortunately, a difficult start for the top order left us 12-4. There were promising innings from Amos Awaghade (27) and Rob Fraser-Allen (25 – on his second team debut). The highlight of our batting was a wonderful senior debut 50 by Rory Monk who played splendidly with shots allround the wicket in his impressive 58 (9 x 4’s).

We finished our innings 180 all out.

A disappointing day for us all, however I explained to the team that we had 4 players in the line up who were U17 which bodes really well for the future of the club, and for their own personal development as cricketers.

We move onto next week where we welcome Rushton to Denton Road looking to get back to winning ways.

3rd XI vs. Grange Park 1st XI

This match was a demonstration of the famous saying by the only Nobel prize-winner for literature to appear in Wisden, Samuel Beckett: ‘Ever tried. Ever failed. No matter. Try again. Fail again. Fail better.’ On the back of two defeats the 3s turned up to face Grange Hill Park at Foxfields. Having lost the toss the skipper was somewhat surprised to be asked to bat, given that Grange had been racking up big scores batting first. Then a quick look at the new pitch prepared for this match gave the reason: green patches a-plenty. Hmmm.

It's hard to say much about a score of 56 all out. Silk purse and sow’s something or other come to mind. Certainly, we failed à la Beckett in spectacular fashion, with only Thacker and I.Street getting into double figures. Hill, the opening bowler and top wicket-taker in the league last year, took 4-25 using the deck and his skill in moving the ball away to good effect.

A quick turnaround and Grange, set about their task by hitting out from the start. Ian and Alfie both picked up a wicket, but it was all over in 9 overs. The opposition really should be in a few divisions higher, but league rules insist they move through the ranks in order, which does lead to miserable days for opposition teams like today. We now have a break and hop
to regroup and reset before the next fixture. To draw on Beckett once more: ‘You must go on. I can’t go on. I’ll go on.’

4th XI vs. Old Northamptonians CC 5th XI

The Legends were back home at the Bozeadome this weekend playing the undefeated Old Northamptonians 5 XIs. Over the last 15 years of the Horton 4s we have play Chris Pedel many times and have had many a close encounter – and this afternoon was going to be no different.

The wicket looked hard and dry and losing the toss, Horton were put into bat – which was the outcome we all wanted. The top order was filled with junior talent and this would be a good test for them as they face old wily bowlers like Chris Pedel and Kunal Patel. And they did not disappoint. With a good start, AB (60) and Srikrishnav Sainath (26) showed some excellent application to get us to 88 for 4. Some quick fire hitting by Adam Willis, Nick Inwood and Sainath Ravikumar got us to 153 – which in golfing terms would be a level par score.

150 is a tough score to defend or the easiest – depending on how we bowled and fielded. We knew scoreboard pressure would be a factor. The openers who scored 150 between them we exposed to the seam of Alex Monk and spin of Jaiteerth Satheesh. Accurate bowling saw the Heathfield pair struggle – with tight fielding adding to the screws being tightened – and ONs at drinks were 53 for no loss. So with 10 wickets in hand and at 5 runs an over it boiled down to a T20 game. With the pressure back on ONs, AB took the prize wicket of David Heathfield with a sharp catch from gloveman Alfie Inwood. After that the spin attack of Srikrishnav and Henry Gallagher dismantled the ON middle order. With 27 needed from 3 overs with 2 wickets in-hand, once again the game could have gone either way – but Monday night Feilding and Fitness paid dividend in the heat – helping us trust our training. And the Legends held on for a 17 run win – all those runs saved in the field in those last overs.

Once again another chapter written in the HHCC 4s v ONs 5s Magna Carta – great cricket – great spirit – and for once an excellent result for the Legends.