Harpenden are through to round three of the ECB Club Championship after beating Shepherds Bush by six wickets.

Ed Washington was Harpenden’s stand-out performer, scoring an unbeaten 69, but, in truth, Shepherds Bush’s bowling attack was a big reason they were dumped out of the competition.

The bowlers’ gave up a suicidal 51 wides and 67 extras overall, which was 32 runs more than Harpenden’s next highest scorer, Oliver Tuck with 35.

It was an unbelievable way to throw away a game, especially after they had put themselves in a strong position with the bat.

Opener Rob McCarroll earned the highest score of the day for both teams with 73 and the middle order did its job superbly – Alex Mitchell (32), Dan Davis (52) and Matt Davis (30*) were excellent at four, five and six respectively.

Two late wickets from Guy Watts and Nick Lamb as Shepherds Bush tried to blast some late-innings runs saw them reach 234-6 from 45 overs.

Defending a decent total, the bowling from Shepherds Bush was spectacular for all the wrong reasons.

Lamb and Gregg Cooper accounted for 34 runs in an opening stand of 50, the other 16 coming from no-balls, wides and byes.

Captain Lamb and Jake Pankhurst went in the 12th over, bringing Washington to the crease. The bowlers improved as he and Cooper had to earn all but six of their 49-run partnership before it was ended when the latter was clean bowled by James Kidson for 30.

At 99-3, either team could have argued they were in a better position, but the bowling to Harpenden’s fourth wicket pairing was laughable as Shepherds Bush all but threw the game away.

Washington and Tuck put 102 runs on the board in almost two hours at the crease. Fifty-two of those runs were extras. When Tuck was caught by McCarroll off Matt Davis, Harpenden had 10 overs to score 43 runs.

Washington and Nick Reeves (21*) duly obliged to book Harpenden’s place in the third round, where they will face Ealing on May 31.