Saracens Herts League Division 3 County Hall beat Wheathampstead 139 by six wickets FOLLOWING a dry week and heavy overnight rain winning the toss was going to be vital to bowl first on what was going to be a feisty wicket. Sure enough Zaf iqbal flipped

Saracens Herts League Division 3

County Hall beat Wheathampstead 139 by six wickets

FOLLOWING a dry week and heavy overnight rain winning the toss was going to be vital to bowl first on what was going to be a feisty wicket.

Sure enough Zaf iqbal flipped one too many rotations and the County Hall's skipper grinned like a Cheshire cat and promptly elected not to bat.

As a result the Wheato batsmen toiled for the next two hours as the ball zipped about. Wright (21-7-53-5) and Batchelor (14-4-38-2) enjoyed their day and after much ground prodding, nursing bruised fingers Mark Winchester to his credit battled away for a fine 73no.

Aided by a bit of tail wagging from the lower order Wheato were eventually all out for 139 but the writing was on the wall.

County Hall found the going just as tough early on and at 52-4 the result was in the balance.

However a straight forward dropped catch at slip allowed Graves to go on to make 32 and a half chance leg slip miss from Bartlett's trusty bat was his only offering in a dogged 52no.

Holding these catches would have made a difference but County Hall deserved their win by six wickets. Wheato's batting needs to improve next week against local rivals St Albans.

After the match a down hearted Iqbal eloquently summed it up as 'disappointing'.

Saracens Herts League Division 8

Wheathampstead 193 beat County Hall II 165 by 34 runs

THERE was better news from County Hall where Wheato again batted first and put up a respectable score of 193 all out.

A cultured innings of 61 from Steve Booth led the way and he was well supported from Kevin Barrow with 22 and a no nonsense 34 from David Arbuthnott maintaining his six hitting record.

County Hall looked threatening until the dual spin attack of David Dabare and Guy Wilson nipped out the County Hall openers.

This paved the way for Chris Dilkes to crank up the bowling arm after a lengthy absence from the game and produce match winning figures of 5-24. His swing bowling proved too good for the CH batsmen who succumbed to 165 all out.

After the match skipper Tim Kiek said: "We are now in second place and just where we want to be to meet our promotion target this year. I have to recognise though that some of my in-form players may be called up to bolster the first team in the next week or two."

Hatfield Dynamics 156-6 drew with Wheathampstead Sunday XI 170-9

WCC travelled to Stevenage to take on Dynamics despite a forecast that suggested a game was very unlikely. Batting first WCC establish a high run rate.

The departure of Andy Alexander for 15 brought together the in-form Steve Booth and Dave Stevens. This pair swatted rather indifferent bowling to the boundary at regular intervals.

Booth went on to make 69 with a superb six over long on before nibbling a catch to the keeper. Stevens playing a 'no need to run when hitting fours innings' eventually fell to an expansive pull shot and top edged for 36.

The all too frequent mid order collapse followed before Adam Robbins 23 helped the score up to 170-9 at tea.

Dynamics batted cautiously throughout without threatening to win the game and they seemed content to settle for a draw to finish on 156-6.

Good bowling from Dan Norris and Jake Bavister with two wickets each kept the runs down and Dynamics seemed content with a draw finishing on 156-6.