Slow start is costly for Brondesbury
A FIGHTBACK from the tail could not prevent Brondesbury's first defeat in seven games as they paid the price for a sluggish start.
Brondesbury lost both openers for ducks at Hampstead and then slumped to 118-7 before the lower order, led by Nick Brand and Toby Sharpe, hoisted them to a respectable total.
But Hampstead took advantage of a drying pitch to race to victory and all but end their neighbours' hopes of a title challenge, with Robert Tidey hitting an unbeaten century.
"The pitch did enough to make it hard work early on, Hampstead bowled accurately and it was a combination of that and some bad batting from us," said Borndesbury captain John Fosbraey.
"We're very pleased with the way Nick did - he's batting way too low at number nine - and Toby's worked hard on his batting as well. But it was never really going to be enough.
"We could have chewed up the last few overs and batted on, but we're not too bothered about stopping other teams getting points - we want to win games and sometimes you take risks to try and do that."
Asked to bat first, Brondesbury were soon in trouble as Chris Paget and Will Vanderspar both departed without scoring and Joe Moore followed for just seven.
Mark Turner did his best to rebuild the innings with a patient 53, but wickets continued to fall at the other end as Hanish Patel (4-66) had Ajay Sangha stumped for 14.
Tom Simpson (18) was caught behind off Jon Lombard and Byron Vermaak followed in the same way for a duck - with Carlo Laurenco finding a way through Turner's defence to leave the visitors on 118-7.
But Brand, initially in tandem with Ed Bridgman (36) and then with Sharpe (34 not out), resisted the Hampstead bowlers, hitting nine fours in an innings of 46 before he fell to Brandon Buckley.
Sharpe and Fosbraey (21) added a valuable 40 for the last wicket, with the skipper becoming Patel's fourth victim as Brondesbury closed on 238 all out in the 62nd over.
And Sharpe (2-24) then raised the visitors' hopes of victory as he bowled Buckley for 10 and had Lombard (5) caught behind to reduce Hampstead to 29-2.
But Tidey survived a chance just before tea and went on to share a century stand for the third wicket with Sumeet Sharma before the latter fell to Sangha for 50.
That wicket was only a brief respite for the Brondesbury attack, though, as Tom Green joined Tidey (104no) and hit an unbeaten 54 to see his side home with five overs to spare.
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