SHL Division Three London Colney 145-6 beat Eversholt 141 by four wickets LONDON Colney continued their good form this season with a four wicket win over Eversholt. With the buffer of wins and points already in the bag, Colney skipper Scott Hadley was a

SHL Division Three

London Colney 145-6 beat Eversholt 141 by four wickets

LONDON Colney continued their good form this season with a four wicket win over Eversholt.

With the buffer of wins and points already in the bag, Colney skipper Scott Hadley was able to risk asking the home side to bat first after he won the toss.

Initially the visitors had the better of things, as Farmer (26) and Litchfield (33) built a 54-run opening partnership, before Andy Cole made the breakthrough with a well-disguised slower ball, which turned and bowled Litchfield.

Although the pitch, covered all week, looked hard and pacey, Hadley read it as a spinner's wicket, and introduced the off-spin of Matt Bristow at the first change.

It proved the decisive call as Bristow took 5-34, with Eversholt losing six wickets for just 34 runs.

A brief stand of 31 temporarily held up Colney, but a pair of wickets each for Paul Wise and Altaf Anwardeen wrapped up the innings for 141.

It looked a well below-par score, but Colney had things far from their own way. Eversholt's paceman Mottershead took three quick wickets to reduce Colney to 28-3, and then after a 45-run partnership between Scott Hadley (37) and Tony Holloway (17), Avis took another three quick wickets to reduce Colney to a decidedly wobbly-looking 82-6.

This brought Danny Webster-Smith, stepping up from the second XI, and Sheron Vanarkady together, and the pair made light of the troubles of the higher order, going on to post a match-wining unbroken partnership of 63, Vanarkady hitting 29no and Webster-Smith 33no.

Even the re-introduction of the opening pace bowlers was unable to disturb them as they chased down the total, and Webster-Smith in particular piled into some short bowling, playing a series of cuts to the off-side boundary, as Colney claimed a win which lifts them to second in the table.

In the corresponding fixture at Eversholt, the II's lost a high-scoring game in which they were invited to bat first by the Eversholt skipper.

There were half centuries from Mitch Bradley (52) and Trevor Ray (59), and runs from Paul Seymour (30), Ady Fisher (26) and Joel Lambrick (39) in a competitive score of 239.

In the Eversholt innings, Connor Dow took three wickets, but a dropped catch proved costly as the home side ran out winners by six wickets. Despite being in the bottom two, a good competitive spirit, and the form of the batsmen offers the promise of better results in future games.