St Albans’ (117) batting line-up failed to fire on Saturday as they went down by eight wickets to Broxbourne (121-2).

Batting first at Clarence Park, St Albans top four batsmen all suffered the same fate, caught by Terry White off Mark Moffat’s bowling, as the hosts struggled to 14-4. The dismissal of Syed Shah (2) only made things worse as the scoreboard read 20-5.

A recovery of sorts from Sandipan Chanda (31) and Craig Bennett-Scotcher (25) pushed the score to 75 but both went in quick succession, as did Phil Casey (2), putting St Albans in deep trouble.

Richard O’Toole’s unbeaten 25 saw his side past 100 put he ran out of partners in the 36th over as St Albans bowed out for 117.

Knowing that they needed an early breakthrough if a result was possible, the bowlers were frustrated by a free-scoring opening wicket partnership between Kulbir Gill (68) and Robin Glassberg (34).

Mark Telkman broke the partnership with the score on 92, having Glassberg caught by Shah. He then accounted for Gill but, with the score on 113, there was little he could do to prevent Chris Sargent (7*) and Muzam Ali (2*) from seeing Broxbourne to victory.