SHL Division Three Ickleford 242-6 drew with London Colney 210-8 AFTER a couple of comfortable wins in the last two weeks, Colney went in to this match against Ickleford looking for a result to maintain their momentum. But in the end, after winning the to

SHL Division Three

Ickleford 242-6 drew with London Colney 210-8

AFTER a couple of comfortable wins in the last two weeks, Colney went in to this match against Ickleford looking for a result to maintain their momentum.

But in the end, after winning the toss and taking the chance of asking the opposition to bat first, came out on the wrong end of a fairly tepid draw.

Colney's opening attack weren't able to trouble Ickleford's top order and, after losing one opener cheaply, runs from Jenner (22), Pursey (45) and Robinson (89) set them on the road for a decent score.

For a long time Colney were unable to do much other than control the scoring rate, and eventually started picking up wickets as the visitors looked to lift the run rate.

Uzman Zaman, with two wickets was the pick of Colney's bowlers, and the rest were shared between four others as Ickleford finished on 242-6.

It was a target Colney would have settled for given the visitors' solid start, and indeed would have been confident of getting after bigger successful run chases this season.

For a while it looked as if they were going to as Ady Fisher built partnerships with Adam Buckmaster (34) and Scott Hadley to lift Colney to 150-2, needing 93 from 19 overs with eight wickets left.

However, when Fisher was out for a fine 79, the wheels came off Colney's chase as J Robinson bowled a spell of 4-17. Four wickets fell for three runs in the 170's, and the chase was over.

David Goff (22no) and Den Hadley added 37 unbroken runs for the eighth wicket to claim maximum batting points and save the draw, but the haul of just six points sees Colney slip out of the top four again.

THE II's meanwhile travelled to Old Finchleians where there was an interesting sub-text to the match. The two sides were separated by a handful of points at the wrong end of the table and realistically, are likely to be contending with each other for the first place above the relegation zone.

It was important for both sides that the other side shouldn't win, and with this in mind, OF's skipper opted to control the game by asking Colney to bat first.

For the first twenty overs or so, it looked like going badly wrong as Connor Dow continued his superb form with the bat, taking apart every bowler that Old Finchleians tried.

With support from Trevor Ray (22) and Mitch Bradley (18) Colney had reached 95-1 in the 19th over and looked set for a huge score.

From that point however, Old Finchleians began to get control of the run rate, and the innings got a bit becalmed.

When Dow was out, for an excellent 96 it was the home side who found themselves better placed as the wrapped up the Colney innings for 214 in 49 overs.

Colney were pretty flat for much of the first period of the reply, and after 25 overs the home side had reached 92-1, with runs from Crispin (32) and Rolwley (41) looking to have put them well in charge.

Trevor Ray's second spell however, of 5-50, turned the whole game on its head, as backed up by 2-42 from Simon Fretter, and a wicket each for Andy Hurst and Matt Irvine, OF's fell apart.

The last over started with them on 177-8, and when Trevor Ray bowled Depola (20) with the first ball, they had five to claim the win.

The third struck the pads and couldn't have looked any straighter, but the umpire saw it differently and the game was drawn.

The 19 points sees Colney overtake Old Finchleians in the table, but in the end the other lost 11 points might well come back to haunt them.