SHL Division Seven Flamstead 154-4 beat London Colney II 153-9 by six wickets FLAMSTEAD celebrated promotion to Division Six after beating London Colney II by six wickets. Starting the day needing 14 points to guarantee promotion, the 30 points mean that

SHL Division Seven

Flamstead 154-4 beat London Colney II 153-9 by six wickets

FLAMSTEAD celebrated promotion to Division Six after beating London Colney II by six wickets.

Starting the day needing 14 points to guarantee promotion, the 30 points mean that Flamstead will finish at least second as they are 77 points ahead of third placed Old Cholmeleians II. With Watford Town II winning again, Flamstead are still just two points behind them with more games to go.

Flamstead skipper Andy Taylor lost his third toss in a row but was not too disappointed with London Colney's decision to bat first.

Colney had a slow start against Twiggy Rogers and Josh Rose with Rose bowling Lambrick. Rogers got the second wicket when he bowled Ray (7) and Rose had dangerous 16-year-old Dow caught at cover by Robert Gibson to leave Colney struggling on 59-3.

Bradley (24) and Stuart (26) then dug in and had put on a stand of 38 before the introduction of veteran Tim Wilkinson turned things around.

Wilkinson ripped out the Colney middle order as he took five wickets for just six runs in four overs as Colney slipped to 110-8.

Most of the Colney middle order got some kind of start, with runs for Adam Stuart (26), Mitch Bradley (24) and Connor Dow (22), but none was able to go on and post the big score that would have been needed from someone to make a game of it. Gibbons (14no) and Whitehead (15) put on 21 runs for the ninth wicket before Jack Smith bowled Whitehead before another stubborn stand saw Colney finish on 153-9.

Wilkinson (5-29) finished with his first five-wicket haul of the season.

Flamstead's innings got off to a slow start as Taylor and Ben Brownlie struggled to get the ball away against the off-spin of Bradley and medium pace of Ray.

After 26 overs and with just 73 on the board the Colney skipper decided to take the new ball and this provided the breakthrough as Simon Fretter bowled Taylor (41).

Brownlie (43) fell four runs later to Dow but a stand of 33 in six overs by Rogers (19) and Dave Watson got Flamstead back on track.

Fretter then struck again bowling Rogers and Dow removed Heseltine (2) to leave Flamstead on 130-4 with eight overs left.

Only three and a half overs were needed as Watson (30no) and Robert Gibson (12no) saw Flamstead to a comfortable six-wicket win.

Skipper Taylor was delighted with the team's promotion to Division Six. "To get promotion with two games to go is a huge achievement for the club but to be champions would be really special.

"We can only hope that Watford Town drop some points in the next two weeks. We battled well against Colney who are fighting relegation.

"Our bowling and fielding were excellent and after a slow start with the bat we gradually got on top and in the end won fairly comfortably."

The club are looking for a promotion double as their second XI need just four points from their last two matches to secure promotion in Division 12.

For Colney II they now have to find something from their last two games to avoid the drop.