SHL Division Three London Colney 270-5 beat Redbourn 266-7 by five wickets LONDON Colney came out on top in a lively local derby with Redbourn that both teams could have won. After winning the toss Colney skipper Scott Hadley asked his visitors to bat f

SHL Division Three London Colney 270-5 beat Redbourn 266-7 by five wickets

LONDON Colney came out on top in a lively local derby with Redbourn that both teams could have won.

After winning the toss Colney skipper Scott Hadley asked his visitors to bat first, but were never able to impose much control on the Redbourn batsmen, as they were able to score at five-an-over for most of their innings.

Despite the early loss of Yorath, in-form opener Simon Osman and captain Dan Roe put on 53 for the second wicket before Roe was caught for 23. Another wicket soon followed and at 83-3 Redbourn were in danger of wasting a good start.

However, this brought in Ben Roe who took the attack to the Colney bowlers straight away and, along with Osman, put together a partnership of 93 before Uzman Zaman had Osman caught behind for 82, an innings that included 12 fours and a six.

Ben Roe continued the onslaught with new partner Ahmed Jamal (23) before he was finally out for an excellent 82 off just 70 balls including 10 fours and a six. Some late hitting from Gary Sandford (12) and Chris Godfrey (17) allowed Roe to declare on 266-7 from 50 overs. For Colney, Zaman took 3-69 from 14, but there was not much to celebrate for the others, and Redbourn looked favourites at the break.

Colney's start wasn't too good, losing two wickets in the early overs to Jamal and Jon Fleming to slip to 2-14, before Adam Buckmaster, with a stylish 39, and Scott Hadley steadied the ship with a 50 partnership.

At this point it began to rain heavily but with both teams feeling that they could force the win they were both happy to remain on the field despite the wet conditions and fading light.

When Buckmaster fell, Hadley was joined by first Tony Holloway (44) for an 87-run partnership and then by Tim Fretter as the pair added another 80 at an almost unbelievable 10-an-over.

"By now, with so much time lost to drying the ball, the match was being played in a gathering gloom and, as often is the case, this hindered the fielders more than the batters as big shots into the deep were not picked up and chances went begging.

By the time Hadley was out, bowled for a superb 102, the match was all but over and Tim Fretter finished things off with a huge straight six to finish on an unbeaten 56.

Incredibly, so dominant had Fretter and Hadley been that Colney had a full 10 overs to spare. For Redbourn, Fleming took 3-76, but the other bowlers all suffered in conditions which by the end were close to impossible for them.

After the game Redbourn captain Roe praised his team for their efforts in very difficult conditions and justified the decision to play through the rain.

"It was always going to be difficult to defend our total in those conditions but it was important that we stayed out there and picked up as many points as possible," he said.

"We have earned 15 points today rather than the 10 we would have got for an abandoned game so we can't be too disappointed with that.