A superb display of batting allowed London Colney Cricket Club to keep pace with the leaders in Saracens Hertfordshire Cricket League Division Five A with a comfortable 118-run win over Preston 2nds.

Herts Advertiser: London Colney CC V Preston 11 - Ricky Zeiderman batting for London Colney. Picture: Karyn HaddonLondon Colney CC V Preston 11 - Ricky Zeiderman batting for London Colney. Picture: Karyn Haddon (Image: Archant)

Rick Zeiderman and Scott Hadley led the way smashing 92 and 86 not out respectively before the bowlers removed the visitors to Green Street for just 125.

It was an impressive performance from Colney who started on the front foot and never looked back.

Skipper Hadley won the toss and elected to bat and openers Zeiderman and Alex Flett got off to a steady start, seeing off the new ball.

The pair looked untroubled as they took Colney to 90-0 off 30 overs, laying the platform to push on in the final 20 overs.

Herts Advertiser: London Colney CC V Preston 11 - Scott Hadley batting for London Colney. Picture: Karyn HaddonLondon Colney CC V Preston 11 - Scott Hadley batting for London Colney. Picture: Karyn Haddon (Image: Archant)

Flett went for a well-played 39 but that brought Hadley to the crease and from the word go he bludgeoned the ball to all parts of the ground with Preston having no answer to his explosive batting.

At the other end Zeiderman increased his run rate and worked the ball around to allow his partner to hit the boundaries.

When Zeiderman was run out in the last over the pair had put on 144 in just 20 overs.

It left Colney with a massive 243-3 and needing a good chase from Preston to steal the win.

Herts Advertiser: London Colney CC V Preston 11 - Ricky Zeiderman batting for London Colney. Picture: Karyn HaddonLondon Colney CC V Preston 11 - Ricky Zeiderman batting for London Colney. Picture: Karyn Haddon (Image: Archant)

And it never came. The opening bowling pair of Tim Fretter and Uzman Zaman knew that wickets would be difficult to come by so bowled very tight and straight.

Fretter had Smith caught for three and Zaman bowled an excellent eight-over spell, going for just 16 runs and being very unlucky not to get a wicket.

But the introduction of Trevor Ray and Simon Fretter changed the game completely.

With the pace off the ball and Fretter’s spin it became incredibly hard for the Preston batsmen to go at the run-rate required.

Herts Advertiser: London Colney CC V Preston 11 - Ricky Zeiderman batting for London Colney. Picture: Karyn HaddonLondon Colney CC V Preston 11 - Ricky Zeiderman batting for London Colney. Picture: Karyn Haddon (Image: Archant)

And the pressure told in the end with Ray getting Lincoln and Mercer in successive overs.

At the other end Fretter was continuing to terrorise the Preston batsmen and soon ran through their order, finishing on 5-20.

They are now fourth in the table with a trip to second-placed Ickleford on Saturday.

The seconds didn’t have as much fun though losing by 49 runs to Sandridge 2nds.