HEREFORDSHIRE and MCC ended with honours even with a victory apiece in their double-header at Brockhampton.
But the day’s big winners were St Michael’s Hospice who raised £21,000 from a large crowd who enjoyed excellent catering and responded generously to the auction and draw offerings.
The match, which was originally the brainchild of Herefordshire president Nick Nenadich, is in memory of former Brockhampton skipper Andrew Watkins and boost the coffers of St Michael’s Hospice considerably.
To help Herefordshire warm up for their forthcoming T20 programme, the day will consisted of two T20 matches.
It was a day of contrast on the field for the county side who gained a crushing victory in the first match before suffering a batting failure in the second.
Chasing a target of 170 in the first match, Herefordshire cruised to victory by nine wickets largely thanks to an opening stand of 122 between skipper Ollie Walker, who hit a 44-ball 68, and Sinel Gunarathne, who hit four sixes and seven fours in his unbeaten 62-ball 80.
There was no respite for the visitors even after Walker’s dismissal with Callum Bennett coming in to assist with finishing the job by hitting an unbeaten 19 from 11 balls.
Earlier, despite 55 from Ben Hope and useful contributions from Alex Milton (29) and Nick Hammond (28 not out), Herefordshire restricted the MCC to 169-5.
Ben Clements (3-16), Imaad Mahmood (1-23) and Ben Clarke (1-29) shared the wickets for Herefordshire.
In the second match, Herefordshire held back Walker and Gunarathne to give others an opportunity to bat.
But the tactic failed to fire with the county side slipping to 46-6 and then 97 all out.
Ollie Langford top-scored with 19 and there were double-figure contributions from Ollie Cox (15), Mahmood (10), Luke Tulacz (12) and Walker (15), who came in at number nine and was last out when caught on the boundary.
Although Clements (2-17), Clarke (1-15) and Mahmood (1-23) again shared the wickets, MCC eased to a six-wicket win with more than seven overs to spare.
Herefordshire begin their NCCA T20 campaign on Sunday when they entertain Wiltshire in a double-header at Eastnor. The first match is due to get under way at 11am.
The following weekend Herefordshire visit Dorset (June 8) before also hosting Devon on June 29.
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