Harpenden Heat have qualified for finals day of the Natwest U19 T20 tournament.

The event was created last year and consists of several cricket clubs from around Hertfordshire competing in four groups with the top team in each reaching finals day.

Harpenden were in a group of five including Redbourn, Hemel Hempstead, Dunstable and Abbots Langley and managed to finish top on net run rate after winning three of their four matches.

Currently both Radlett and Bishop’s Stortford have also qualified for finals day, with the last place still to be confirmed.

When they are, the semi-final matches will be decided with the competition taking place as an all-day event to be held at Welwyn Garden City Cricket Club on September 11.

Harpenden will hope to go one further than last year when they topped Group D and beat Hertford in the semi-final, only to lose out to Bishop’s Stortford in the final, complete with a barbecue and music blasting out at regular intervals in order to create a real T20 atmosphere.

In that match Harpenden made 153-8 but were undone by a Stortford batting line-up which included a 50 from Ryan Wells.

Harpenden captain Nick Winchester told the Herts Ad: “As a team we are ecstatic about qualifying for finals day in successive years.

“After winning our semi-final but disappointingly losing in the final last year, we hope we can go one better this season, and with the talent in our team I don’t see why not.”