Cricket clubs were, in the main, able to dodge the wet weather this week - much to the delight of many.

Knebworth Park racked up their seventh win of the Herts Cricket League season to maintain their Division Two B promotion bid.

The seven-wicket win away to Letchworth seconds keeps them third in the table but closes the gap to West Herts in second to just 19 points. 

After bowling the hosts out for 156, they then raced past the target in only 22.5 overs. 

Knebworth's opening bowlers Gareth Jones and Charlie Randall made early inroads with Jones (3-33) labouring hard up the hill and into the wind while the ever-reliable pace of Randall (1-19) was too much for the batsmen at times. 

Skipper Matt Hutchinson (1-17) mixed up the bowlers throughout to extract wickets while the father and son combo of Alex and Kobie Richmond (3-27 and 2-28) bowled with discipline.

Park's reply again set off fast and aggressive with opening pair Louis Champion (84) and Haydon Bartlett Tasker (31) putting loose bowling to the sword. 

Champion posted the Letchworth attack to all areas of the ground supported well again by Haydon who then ran himself out and Josh Roseberry fell cheaply soon after. 

Champion continued to attack but fell close to the end so it was left to Randall (3*) and Archie Stephens (17*) to close the innings in the 23rd over.

Ickleford lost the toss at home to Harpenden in Division One and then the game, the visitors winning by 103 runs.

The hosts did start the game brightly with three early wickets for just 19 runs.

However, a few good partnerships kept the score ticking and despite some great catches by both Matt and Luke Marsden and an excellent run out from Axel Morris, Harpenden finished on 199.

The wickets were shared between Luke Marsden, Morris, Thomas Brown, Sam Draper and George Crouch.

And despite restricting the away side to a score below par, Ickleford started poorly and never were able to bounce back, being bowled out for 96.

Richard Brown was the top scorer with 24.

Despite scoring an impressive 224-8 in their 50 overs, Ickleford seconds were beaten by five wickets by Botany Bay.

The star of the Ickleford batting was again Duncan Jenner who continued his sensational run of form with a brilliant unbeaten 96.

He found excellent support from Mark Schumann who scored an impressive 50 and Archi McIntosh who made 33.

But in reply Ickleford were unfortunate to face opener Harris who made an imperious unbeaten 132 to almost single handedly guide his team to victory.

Scott Crouch took 2-46 while there was one wicket each for Leo Mason, Richard Peareth and Jenner.

The third team that travelled to Datchworth included six members of the U15 squad.

Datchworth won the toss and elected to bowl on a slightly damp pitch and the top four of Ickleford all contributed as they reached 186-6.

Dave Pursey (37), Matteo Peareth (34), Adam  Brockett (44), and Joe Dalrymple (20) were the prospering quartet.

Datchworth started the chase well and were at the rate at the halfway point before Jayden Lidder took the key wicket dismissing the dangerous Datchworth opener for 53 well caught by Nick Webb in the deep.

Lidder finished with 3-22 supported by Scott Dalrymple with 3-31.

The miserly Webb (1-19) was used across three spells to tighten things up when needed and Jake Ellis Holmes (1-6) also bowled tightly for two critical overs as Datchworth fell short of the required target at 170-9.

Ickleford fourths fielded a team with a mix of youth and experience, with five juniors in their first season of adult cricket and Noah Giggle making his adult debut.

Ickleford won the toss and decided to field and despite some good bowling from the opening attack of Sam Larsen and Moosa Akhtar, Wheathampstead openers prospered with an opening partnership of 71 before Tom Lloyd-Farr struck in the 16th over.

The introduction of spin slowed the run rate and wickets started to tumble.

Nasir Nawaz took 1-36 and Victoria Maguire 1-18 but the star bowler was Noah Giggle with 3-17.

Kai Day and Joshua Schumann took a wicket each as well as Wheato finished on 162-8.

Ickleford’s response got off to a bad start losing Larsen, Schumann and Nawaz before the score was 30.

Neil Taylor (36) steadied things, putting on 30 with Day, but wickets fell rapidly after that, the damage mainly done by the Wheathampstead junior bowlers.

There was a useful 25 from Sam Giggle but Ickleford fell 44 runs short.

Stevenage suffered a tough day, losing by 111 runs to Lutonian with only 4-30 from Manohar Kosaraju to cheer.

Hitchin and Letchworth both won in Division One though.

Hitchin beat Chorleywood by four wickets with 4-43 from Kian Postlethwaite, 81 not out from Musa Ilyas and 75 not out from Shatab Khalid their standout performances.

Letchworth had a six-wicket win at Old Elizabethans with David Albon (4-8) and Tom Manning (37) the men on form.

In the Championship, Preston lost by nine wickets to leaders Shenley Village after they were bowled out for 51.