Remarkable trio of tied games for clubs in Herts League

Two came in the Championship, Preston held away to Broxbourne and Letchworth Garden City denied at home to St Albans.

Preston Cricket Club captain Jake George. Picture: PRESTON CC (Image: Preston Cricket Club)

Despite losing the toss, Preston built a competitive total of 242 before being all out in the 40th over.

It was the management team who shone, skipper Jake George chipping in with a vital and well made 51 while vice-captain Ed Wharton smashed a huge 121 from 117 balls, the pair putting on 125 for the second wicket.

Broxbourne's opening seven batsmen all made double figures while Preston used all the bowlers at their disposal, Pete Murrell the best of them with 2-42.

It all came down to the nail-biting final over and ended with the scores tied and the spoils of the day shared.

Letchworth were doing the chasing after St Albans set 209-9, two wickets each coming from Sajjad Homyoon, Liam Bishton and Joe Davidson.

Manning gave them a chance in the opening with 42 but it needed a patient partnership between Nathan Sprittles (45) and Harry Aitkenhead (33) to solidify their innings, moving them from 81-4 to 142-5.

Sprittles then worked with David Albon (43*) to add another 62, leaving Letchworth five runs short, and there was still time for one more wicket with the scores tied, Bishton run out as he went for the winning score.

Ickleford seconds were the other side, sharing the spoils away to Hertingfordbury in Division Six B.

They had won the toss and put the hosts in, holding them to 140 as they bowled and fielded well throughout.

Ollie Ellis-Holmes was the stand out bowler with 4-31 from his 10 overs while Harry Chan took 3-22 as well as two outstanding catches.

Ickleford's first team were also involved in a thrilling game, winning by three runs against Allenburys & County Hall in Division Three A.

Put into bat on a lively wicket, Duncan Jenner made a gritty 55 but wickets still fell regularly, leaving them 98-7.

Michel Day then marshalled the tail, being last man out for 33 as Ickleford inched their way to 155.

Allenburys then put out on 70 for the first wicket before Sedat Sheraz made the breakthrough.

At 125-3 though, the visitors were still well placed for victory. However, Charlie Jupp then started an astonishing collapse by taking a stunning diving catch off Sam Draper’s bowling.

Draper finished with three wickets while Nadeem Akhtar got two in his final over.

Day then returned to take the final wicket with the score at 152.

Elsewhere, Hitchin beat Old Elizabethans by 44 runs in Division One.

Shaftab Khalid top scored with 55 while there was 38 from Sanjay Chandarana as they got to 201-9 at Lucas Lane.

The visitors fell short, all out for 157 after 38 overs.

Khalid again led the way with 3-16 in seven overs while there were two wickets each for Kian Postlethwaite (2-21), James Tilbury (2-25) and Musa Ilyas (2-33).

Stevenage were beaten by 95 runs by Northwood in Division Two A. Anjani Singh took 4-36 but he was also the top scorer with just 23.

Knebworth Park clinched a second successive win in Division Two B as they won by 27 runs away to Hertford.

Victory was clinched by U16 fast bowler Jo Hibbins who took a crucial 3-25 in only his second first-team game. 

A solid start of 79 from Louis Champion (42) and Haydon Bartlett-Tasker (44) was followed by good contributions from Liam Mitchell (38) and Charlie Randall (28).

Josh Roseberry held the middle order together and accelerating the score with 26 not out while a quick-fire 22 not out from Alex Richmond hoisted the total to 228-7.

Kobie Richmond bagged an early wicket before Alex Richmond (2-35) and Matt Hutchinson (3-53) made further progress into the hosts' batting.

But at 178-6, Hertford were in the box seat before Kobie Richmond brilliantly ran out Johnny Underdown.

Then it was young Hibbins who stepped in to take the final three wickets, clean bowling the last two to clinch victory to dismiss Hertford for 199. 

Further into the league structure, Ickleford thirds were well beaten by Knebworth Park threes at Holwell.

Winning the toss, Ickleford fielded first and took a wicket with the first ball of the game before reducing the visitors to 11-2.

However, Park recovered to make 200-6 in their 40 overs before proceeding to bowl the home side out for 90, Tom Willoughby making an impressive 40, including two sixes.

They took some pleasure from the game though as Ickleford fielded three juniors making their league debuts, .

And Akein Perera (1-40) and Noah Giggle (2-41) bowled nicely alongside Scott Dalrymple (3-31).

The Sunday side took their match with Markyate to the final over, winning off the last ball.

They had needed four runs from the final set of six and had nine wickets already down.

Youngsters Giggle and Joshua Schumann were the batsmen and after a wide and a scrambled two tied the scores, Giggle got the winning run.

Earlier, Markyate had made 191 with Schumann taking 3-45 and Giggle and Leo Chan getting two wickets each.

Sadat Sheraz had dominated the Ickleford innings with a brilliant 92, although he did get good support from Charlie Jupp (27) and David Baker (19).

Like their first-team, Preston seconds also had an exciting game against Broxbourne.

Preston had been pinned back by Broxbourne's slow bowlers, finishing on 192-8, but as the Broxbourne reply got close, they ran out of batsmen, finishing 20 runs short and giving Preston their second win in Division Four B.

The thirds beat Redbourn by 14 runs in another close encounter.

Preston batted first and made 199-6 in 40 overs with Ranjani making a decent 47 not out, well-supported by Staddon (33), Ponder (37) and Blair (24).

In reply, Redbourn ran out of overs, seven men down.

Preston fourths though were beaten by Letchworth by 10 runs.

They asked Letchworth to take the first knock and restricted them to 188 all out.

And they came close in reply, Williamson getting 61 and Granham 58, but they finished on 178-6.