Leaders Baldock Town have stretched their advantage at the top of the Stevenage & District Mixed Bowls League to nine points.

The table toppers have won ten of their 13 matches to date, giving them a total of 61 points.

Their latest victory came with a 57-44 triumph at Howard Garden, winning on all three rinks to take six points.

Last year's champions St Ippolyts have moved into second with 52 points from eight victories in their 12 declared matches.

They have moved above Howard Garden, who also have eight wins so far, giving them 47 points.

Fourth place is held by Whitethorn BC who have played 11 matches, winning seven, losing three and drawing one with a total of 42.5 points.

The league leaders have also been in action in a friendly at home to Steeple Morden, winning 62-48.

In the North Herts League, the club's ladies played at Three Horseshoes and won 41-26.

Howard Garden started their week with a match against Holwell in the SML Cup.

They were in excellent form, winning home and away with an overall score of 112-25.

North Herts came off second best in the opening match of the week against Whitethorn, losing 39-87.

The team of Andy Denniss, Lynne Brown and Stephen Field had a very close game, but finally went down 13-14.

The club was then beaten 32-59 by Shephalbury in their second match.

Another close game from the team of Sylvia Bachelor, Chin Tory and Paul Eiseborough saw them edged out 14-16.

An excellent win of 18-16 from Jeff Tebbutt, Brian Hutchings and new member Norman Leslie, who had a great game in his first ever match, wasn't enough to save North Herts from another defeat, 53-96 against Melbourne.

Whitethorn bowlers Billy Chaudhery and Carol Conlon played Royston in the Letchworth & District mixed pairs on Tuesday, losing out 20-27.

Thursday saw Whitethorn win 21-16 on one rink against Aston, but lose on two - 13-16 and 6-23 - as they suffered a 40-55 defeat.

After Saturday's Stevenage mixed league match against Royston had to be cancelled because of the bad weather, Whitethorn faced Potton the following day, losing 52-83.