Miserly opening bowlers the key to nine-wicket win

3:21pm Wednesday 4th July 2001

Stevenage II 118 Old Finchleians 122-1

Saracens Herts League Division Three

Alan Dudman and Chris Edler were the star performers as Old Finchleians strolled to a nine-wicket win over bottom club Stevenage II at Southover on Saturday.

They shared an unbroken century stand and earlier, Dudman claimed three for 27 and Edler made two smart stumpings off the bowling of Paresh Somani (4-52 off 16.3 overs).

After Finchleians' skipper Chris Pope won the toss and put Stevenage in, his brother Nick, whose 10 overs yielded only 11 runs, and Vinay Mehta, who conceded only 17 off 14 overs, had the visitors struggling from the start.

At the halfway stage, Stevenage were only 37-2 off 26 overs and although John McKenna (30) and Simon Robert (20) put on 48 for the third wicket, wickets fell regularly.

OFs needed only 24 overs to knock off the required runs.

Old Finchleians have protested to the Saracens Hertfordshire League alleging that University College Academicals included several ineligible players in their Third Division match at London Colney in May.

"It's nothing short of cheating," complained OFs match secretary Geoff Owen. "The rules state that sides are limited to only one overseas player, but six strong Australian accents were heard, and it is unlikely that five of them held British passports."

"When the league wrote back asking us to provide more precise details, we had marked the scoresheet and were able to provide the names of the Australians."

Among them were three players, Gentry, Pexton and Wilson, who made major contributions as UCA won by six wickets.

League official Barry Hellewell said: "We have written to UCA and are awaiting their reply."

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