BROTHERS Ben and Dan Roe almost pulled off an improbable victory in a rain-affected game against Old Owens.

Old Owens set Redbourn a target of 196 and after openers Geoff Tookey (2) and George Naismith (12) both fell to Rory Allan deliveries, Dan Roe took to the crease.

Together with James Bunce the pair started a fruitful partnership until the second rain interruption of the day delayed play. The batsmen had barely played themselves back in when a third bout of rain had them back in the pavilion.

When they finally re-emerged Redbourn had just 16 overs to score 120 runs.

Undeterred and seemingly inspired by the situation, Roe and Bunce resumed and took the Redbourn score to 103 with a partnership of 82 before Bunce (48) was caught.

With overs fast running out and the required run rate up to 9 per over, Chris Godfrey fell to Allan (3-52) leaving Redbourn 114-4.

Out came Ben Roe to join his brother and together they belligerently attacked the bowling and made 60 runs off 48 balls, finding the boundary with increasing regularity and leaving an arguably reachable 23 to win off the last two overs.

However the weather was to have the final say. With light fading, the umpires took counsel and, after a long on-pitch discussion, the game was brought to a disappointing end.

Earlier in the day, having elected to bat first, Owens were left floundering when Jon Flemming (4-49) tore through the top order. Ben Roe (1-23) got in on the action as Owens slumped to 67-5.

A 98-run partnership between Javed Mir (48) and Shahzeb Raja (48) pushed the score up to 165-5 before the former was trapped LBW by Daniel Roe (3-37).

The next three wickets fell for just 31 runs as Daniel Roe and Daniel Darvell (1-20) removed the tail end as Owens finished on 196-9.

Final score: Redbourn (174-4) drew with Old Owens (196-9)

The win, Redbourn’s first of the season, leaves them near the bottom of a pack of 11 teams separated by 23 points. They will hope to catapult up the league with a win over Old Albanian on Saturday, 1pm start, at Woollams.