Sandridge took full advantage of the superb work done by their groundsmen with a victory over Old Haberdashers catapulting them into the promotion places.

On a day where only a handful of games survived the overnight deluge, staff at the village ground along with a rapidly drying outfield, allowed play to begin at 1.30pm.

And at the close of play a third successive win lifted them into second in Division Four A above Hatfield & Crusaders.

The later start meant a game reduced to 46 overs and Sandridge opted to bowl first after winning the toss, and they enjoyed a good start with two quick wickets from skipper John Murphy.

At the other end, youngster Steve Perrin bowled beautifully with little reward and the score limped to 22-2 off 13 overs.

Murphy struck again before he bowled his allocation and finished with miserly figures of 3-13 to leave the score 42-3.

A solid partnership of 61 pushed the score along but with bowlers Sunny Narula, Peters and Qamar producing deadly accurate deliveries, Old Habs were unable to press the accelerator and reached an under par 148-7.

Tom Evans and Adam Temple opened up for the home side and took the score to 22 in quick time before two wickets from excellent slip catches stalled the progress.

The Haberdashers bowlers bowled with accuracy and gave little away as the batsmen were caught between attack and defence and Qamar (18), Abbas (10) and Norman (11) all perished looking to get the run rate above 3.4 in case the rains came.

At 84-5 the game was in the balance but Jack White entered the fray and changed the game in Sandridge's favour.

Mixing careful defence with his usual attacking flair he played himself in beautifully before unleashing his array of attacking strokes.

When he hit the excellent and accurate Gelber for three fours in the 36th over the game was almost up.

Temple was run out for an innings-anchoring 47 with just 12 needed and when White (37) was bowled trying to hit the winning runs it was left to Sunny Narula to drill the ball to the boundary through mid-on to secure the 30 points.

A spokesman for the club said: "In a weekend where almost all other cricket was cancelled across the county the game was a credit to both teams."