London Colney 96-6 beat North Mymms II 90 all out by four wickets London Coney visited North Mymms II for their Division Three match knowing that the conditions were likely to play a big part. A torrential downpour on Thursday evening had left the Mymms

London Colney 96-6 beat North Mymms II 90 all out by four wickets

London Coney visited North Mymms II for their Division Three match knowing that the conditions were likely to play a big part.

A torrential downpour on Thursday evening had left the Mymms square a lake, and washed out their president's day match on Friday without a ball being bowled, and there was still doubt about the match on Saturday morning.

Even when the decision had been made to go ahead, with a damp pitch drying in the hot sun, the toss was going to play a big part in the game, and when Colney skipper Scott Hadley won it, he had no real doubts about asking the home side to bat first.

Andy Cole opened the bowling for Colney and was more or less unplayable, finding sideways seam movement at pace and conceding just seven runs in 14 overs while taking two wickets and making the early breakthrough for Colney.

After Tim Fretter and Uzman Zaman had also claimed early wickets, Hadley, again reading the pitch correctly, brought on the off-spin of Matt Bristow who was able to find exaggerated turn as he took four wickets for seven runs and ripped the heart out of the Mymms batting order.

Uzman Zaman and Andy Cole returned to clean the innings up and, despite batting for 48 overs, Mymms were never able to raise the run rate above two an over and were bowled out for just 90.

In truth Colney didn't bat terribly well, although they never really looked like not winning it despite losing six wickets in the chase.

In the end, a hard-hitting undefeated 35 from Tim Fretter was enough to steady the nerves and see Colney home with over a quarter of the 100 overs still remaining. The win lifts Colney to second place in the table in what has been, up until this point, comfortably the best season in the club's history.

l London Colney II are having a very different season and are desperately in need of points to lift them out of the relegation zone. The 11 they claimed from Saturday's draw with Boxmoor was better than nothing but does no more than keep them in touch with the clubs above them in the table.

Boxmoor won the toss and elected to bat, and for a while looked like running up a huge total as openers Pimm (53) and Coster (83) piled on the runs with Kasthuriachi, batting at three, adding 38 into the bargain. From that start however, Colney hit back with Simon Fretter (2-67) and Mitch Bradley (3-38) claiming precious bowling points as Boxmoor were restricted to 218-7.

The seconds have specialised this season in failing to build on good starts and this match followed the pattern. Runs from Joel Lambrick (25) and Ady Fisher (39) took them to a promising looking 98-3 but when Fisher was out the wheels came off.

Feander, Marke and Kasthuriachi claimed two wickets apiece as they ran through the Colney middle order and with 11 overs to go, 138-9 looked a pretty hopeless position.

Jerry Fretter and John Gibbons dug in and lifted Colney to 163-9 without being parted, saving the draw and claiming four precious batting points in the process. Although the points leave Colney within a few points of safety, realistically they need at least one more win to have any chance of staying in division and with the season heading into its last quarter time is running out.