The first completed Herts Cricket League meeting of Letchworth and Hitchin in more than a decade went the way of the garden city side.

The Division One match between the pair on the opening day of the season had been abandoned without a ball being bowled.

And although rain was once again in the air, the first game since 2010 saw Letchworth win by 86 runs at their Whitethorn Lane home.

The victory also came with an added bonus, moving Letchworth out of the relegation places and dropping Hitchin into them.

The visitors had won the toss and put Letchworth into bat, removing Tom Manning to a catch behind off the bowling of Steven Flint.

That was when the rain arrived to reduce the clash to 42 overs per side but once they resumed it was one-way traffic.

Former Hitchin junior Praveen Bhatti joined David Sprittles for a stunning 152-run partnership, the former ending up not out on 95 and the latter finally dismissed for 82.

That end of the stand did not provide the hoped for respite for the Lucas Lane outfit who were on the receiving end of brutal Dave Albon onslaught in the final six overs.

He hit five sixes on his way to a 21 ball half-century and giving Letchworth their highest league score for almost three years, an imposing 259-2.

And Hitchin's reply never got off the ground. Sprittles backed up his runs with a double strike in his third over, including star player Shaftab Khalid caught at first slip for a duck.

Sprittles (3-29) struck again along with off-spinner Sam Kendle to leave Hitchin 41-4 in 11 overs.

Will Guest's stylish half-century carried Hitchin to a respectable total and earned his side five valuable batting points, but the day belonged to Letchworth who recorded back-to-back wins for the first time this campaign.

There was another derby down in Division Two A where Stevenage kept pace with the top two thanks to an eight-wicket success at Ditchmore Lane over Ickleford.

This too was rain affected and with the visitors batting first, it quickly became a case of the batsmen making starts but not going on to make a significant score.

Eden Scott (17), George Crouch (21), Axel Morris (36), Sam Giggle (20) and Jak Phillips (24) all made double figures but did not go on as was needed and it meant that Ickleford were dismissed for just 130.

Stevenage did not have sufficient scoreboard pressure and were able to build steadily, skipper Conor Hayward making an unbeaten 71 to guide Stevenage to the win.

Nadeem Akhtar and Sam Draper took a wicket each for Ickleford who bowled tidily but without the sufficient challenge.

The seconds lost to Boxmoor despite setting a creditable 204-8 in a rain shortened match.

Most of that was set up by Duncan Jenner’s third successive half century, making 54 in the end, although there was support from Kmajed Khan(32) and William McIntosh (29).

Ickleford took an early wicket but Boxmoor were rarely troubled and raced to the target just three wickets down.

The thirds game against Hitchin fourths at Holwell was reduced to 20 overs per side because of rain.

Ickleford were asked to bat first and after an aggressive start, a regular fall of wickets prevented real acceleration.

Only a quick fire 18 from Bharath Puttur, together with 25 from Dave Pursey, got the hosts to a below-par 98-6.

In reply, two quick wickets by Scott Dalrymple and Richard Peareth raised hopes but then an unbeaten partnership of 97 against some loose bowling enabled Hitchin to cruise to a win by eight wickets.

Ed Wharton was back in the spotlight for Preston in the Championship but he was unable to steer them to victory at home to Broxbourne.

Fresh from his 10 wickets last week, he took two more this time around before hitting a top score of 61 in Preston's reply.

Unfortunately, only three others joined him on double figures, Philip Simpson the best of the rest with 28, and they tumbled from 110-3 to be all out for 144, 18 short of the visitors.

Daniel Scholz was the pick of the Preston bowlers this week with 4-19 from 12 overs, seven of them maidens.

Baldock Played host to Botany Bay in Division Five B and took the win thanks to a fine bowling performance.

They batted first at Avenue Park, making 184-8 in their 50 overs with skipper Daniel Plumb a top score of 60.

Jack Barnard and Ryan Batty putting on 50 for the first wicket.

The visitors started slowly but when big gun Kasey Harris was brilliantly caught by Barnard for just seven, Baldock began to believe.

They began to take wickets and with 3-25 from Alistair Jones and James McCall's 2-15, Bay were bowled out for 159.

The seconds were beaten by seven wickets away to Pinner.

Having been asked to bat on a wet wicket Baldock were rolled over for 92 with only 16-year-old Will Flynn (20), dad Sean (19) and Tom Pinner (24) getting any runs of note.

Pinner then knocked them off with three men down, Tom Pinner bagging two wickets.