Harpenden and Radlett warmed up for their big derby day clash with yet more victories.
The pair meet in round five of the Herts Premier Cricket League season on Saturday at Harpenden Common and both have now made it four wins from four in the Premiership.
Radlett produced a blistering start at home to Hertford but ended up clinging on for a nervy six-run success.
Peter Hatzoglou had a half-century inside the first 10 overs as he and skipper Dominic Chatfield put on 106 for the first wicket before the former fell for 74 in the 18th over.
That came from just 57 deliveries and contained seven fours and four sixes and Chatfield followed soon after for 27, leaving Radlett on 110-2.
There still appeared little alarm even when Fraser Crawford was out for 21 to the last ball of the 30th over, taking them to 157-4.
However, 47 balls later they were all out for just 175.
Kyle Wilson and Adam Carlson did the initial damage, both finishing on 3-23, before Bailey Eustace returned to claim the last two wickets and finish on 4-50.
The Hertford reply never hit the heights of that Radlett start but it was constantly ticking over and moving in the right direction.
They were seemingly still underdogs when they lost their ninth wicket in for 152 runs in the 44th over but after two runs clawed back in the next over, back-to-back sixes from Richard Leather, plus a couple of singles, suddenly left them needing 10 with four overs left.
Two runs were knocked off that total and it prompted a change in the Radlett bowling, Chatfield bringing himself into the attack.
His first delivery to Leather was smashed towards the ropes but not far enough, Crawford taking the catch and sparking the celebrations.
Hatzoglou took the honours with the ball too as he took 3-45 while Chatfield joined Koby Cornwell on two wickets
Harpenden's victory was much more straight-forward and calmer, as they eased home by five wickets at Totteridge Millhillians.
The home side had reached 231 after electing to bat first, all after they had lost two wickets in the opening over, and dropped to 26-3.
Good performances in the middle order by Leo Davis (44) and Kabilraj Kanagaratnam (57) had been key to that but Harpenden kept plugging away with their bowling.
Again they used most of their players, seven given at least one over, and six of them took wickets, two each coming from Ben Frazer, Liam Dudding, Harry Seagrave.
Harpenden too had a stutter in the first over, losing the wicket of Scott Galloway, but they recovered and a match-winning third-wicket partnership of 143 between James Latham and Andrew Neal did more than enough.
Opener Latham finished unbeaten on 58, made off 109 balls as he was happy to play steady foil to the swashbuckling Neal.
He smashed 102 in 84 balls, 15 sent for four and another three put straight over the rope.
Alex Gosling then hit 28 in 18 balls to seal the deal, a six and two fours in the first three balls of the 42nd over claiming the win.
Share