Cricket round-up: Preston held by Letchworth in Championship

Four of the five fixtures in the division ended without an outright winner and Preston were held by near neighbours Letchworth.

Letchworth bowled first on their home wicket but Preston's opening pair of Ed Wharton (68) and James Stevens (54) put on a stand of 93 before Wharton fell.

Jack Stevens came in to give the innings an impetus, smashing a brilliant 78 at number five and with the rest of the Preston batsmen chipping in valuable runs, they finished on 283-7.

For Letchworth, David Albon claimed 4-63 in 17 overs and David Sprittles made a decent 95 before Pete Murrell had him caught by Justin Powick.

Sam Kendle made 45 lower down the order supported by 32 from Albon but the rest of the Letchworth line-up failed to fire.

However, despite heavy pressure, Letchworth managed to hold on to close their innings on 225/8.

The result leaves Preston seventh while Letchworth are still in the bottom two, now 43 points from safety.

Preston seconds beat Northampton Exiles by 52 runs.

Batting first, openers Peter Gooden and Omar Faleel sent the Exiles to every corner of the ground, Faleel making a feisty 41 before being caught.

Gooden though went on to make a quality century (117) and there was 57 from Jack Morecroft and 50 not out for Daniel Plumb, all part of a formidable 286-4.

Exiles set about the chase very positively but wickets still fell cheaply with Gallimore claiming 4-55, supported by Faleel with 3-27.

They closed on 234 all out.

Preston thirds also claimed 30 points against Hemel, winning by 58 runs.

They batted first and made 167-9 in the full 40 overs, the highlight being 56 not out from young Will McIntosh in only his third game for the club.

In reply, Hemel could only muster 109, Iain Purton taking 3-25 for Preston.

And the fourths also claimed the double against Stevenage fifths with a two-wicket win.

Stevenage only managed 106 with Andy Riant's 5-10 the clear pick of the bowling.

And in a tight game, Preston reached 108-8 in the 36th over with some accurate bowling from Stevenage claiming regular wickets.

Sunday's game brought a four-wicket loss to Henlow for a development squad.

The team, filled with a lot of the club's youngsters, made 142-9 while there was two wickets for both Arundeep Natt and Stanley Buckland and one for Eoin Doyle.

Hitchin's promotion hopes in Division One took a hit with a six-wicket loss at home to bottom of the table Lutonian.

Winning the toss and choosing to bat, Hitchin made 206 underpinned by a usual self-assured 74 not out from Shaftab Khalid and a dashing 64 from former captain Sanjay Chandarana.

Unfortunately they fell away in the last few overs when wickets fell too regularly.

They still felt they had enough runs but an assault by Lutonian's openers, particularly Asad Rasheed's 52, saw them race to 60 in 10 overs.

Wickets fell but at 121-4, Muhammed Adeel (25) and Zahid Ali Khan (61) extinguished any hope of a Hitchin fightback.

The seconds lost away to Shenley Village by four wickets, the sixths went down to Potters Bar and the fourths were beaten by six runs against Ickleford thirds.

But there was a six-wicket win for the thirds against Old Minchendenians, helped by a solid 80 not out from Ben Hammond, and the fifths beat Ware.

Stevenage fell to Division Two A leaders Harpenden, losing by 33 runs.

Kawalpreet Singh took 4-40 as Harps made 274.

In reply Stevenage got to 240-8 in their 50 overs with Thomas Liversidge top scoring on 62 and James Thompson getting 40. 

Kobie Richmond and Charlie Randall set up an emphatic 119-run win for Knebworth Park at Flitwick in Division Two B.

On a surface always offering assistance to the bowlers, they piled on a match-defining stand of 158 after a stuttering start of 37-2 where Haydon Bartlett Tasker hit 21.

Randall went on to strike 80 and Richmond was run out in the final over for 99.

Their total of 254-9 soon became a tall order for the home side as  Richmond and Gareth Jones (2-24) had them struggling and behind the run rate at 33-3 in 10 overs.

Amelia Kemp chipped in with a wicket and Randall then returned to take 3-19, along with 2-27 from Alex Richmond.

It left the hosts on 133.

The seconds also had a convincing win, defeating Hatfield & Crusaders seconds by 87 runs.

Knebworth set off rapidly before losing the first wicket on 55 when Mark Woods (25) was bowled, misreading a straight ball and offering no shot. 

The score sped onto 97 before Abhina Parvathanei (18) was the second to fall.

Adam Sergeant maintained the run rate and a total of 230 plus was on the cards but after he was out for 75 in the 26th over runs became harder to find. 

Two run outs and only James Hobbs (29) and Owen Watkins (23) getting into double figures the innings finished on a disappointing 190 in the 47th over. 

Jack Randall (4-28) & Rob Burnell (2-18) opened the bowling and wickets fell regularly and by the 13th over they'd reduced Hatfield to 40-6. 

No further wickets fell before the change in bowling at the 21st over although the Park’s bowlers had kept beating the bat.

Watkins was introduced into the attack picking up wickets with his first and third balls and another in his second over to finish with 3-2.

Skipper Graham Fisher then snared the final wicket with his first ball in the 31st over to bowl them out for 103.

The thirds completed a hat-trick of league wins with a four wicket win over Wheathampsted.

Wheato set off at nearly five an over but losing wickets repeatedly, one to a run out featuring Mothilal Pav, who then removed three upper order batsmen with stunning deliveries. 

Shiva Pole snapped another and 14 overs from Iain Hildebrandt and Finn Hobbs saw them both take two apiece at a combined cost of 35.

A second run out featuring Paul Mathews saw Knebworth needing to chase a target of 121.

They started slowly at 25-3 but Pole and Adam Hassall then made a stand of 47 with Pole making a lusty 40 including two sixes to lift them to a healthy 80-4

Paul Mathews went for a quick 13, and Hassall for a meticulous 17, laying the foundation for the win.

Then it was about  small partnerships. Miles Baron and Iain Hildebrandt put on 19 to reach 114 before Hildebrandt saw them home with a not out 20.

Ickleford were comfortably beaten away to St Albans in Division Three A.

After electing to bat, the home side may have felt this was a mistake, with variable bounce and significant movement on offer, making the new ball almost impossible to face. 

Ickleford opening bowler Eswar Krishnamurthy's 10 overs went for just 12 runs, picking up a wicket, and Axel Morris bowled well again.

At 55-3 in the 22nd over, with Tom Brown chipping in on his way to an excellent 2-30, St Albans appeared to be floundering.

But the conditions got easier and Jithin Balan, who had ridden his luck earlier, upped the pace and went on to make 101.

It got St Albans to 217-5, certainly above par, and the contest was effectively over by the 10th over as the Ickleford top order crumbled, their top six contributing just 25 runs, of which Duncan Jenner made 19. 

Lower order contributions from Sam Draper, Brown, Morris (25) and Luke Dodd (20) dragged the visitors to a batting point, but the damage had already been done. 

Ickleford seconds had a nervy three-wicket win against bottom of league Southgate Adelaide.

Choosing to bowl, Ickleford kept tight control of the batsmen with 2-17 from Michael Day, before Scot Crouch took 3-38 and Richard Brown 2-30, as Southgate Adelaide were bowled out in final over for 162.

James Dermont made a fluent 34 and Adam Ross 21 before Ashish Mishra anchored the innings with a patient 16 not out.

Ickleford though were aided by a mammoth amount of extras including an astonishing 54 wides, eventually creeping to the win.

The thirds produced their best performance of the season to beat top of the table Hitchin fourths at Holwell by six runs.

Losing the toss, Ickleford were asked to bat and a partnership of 78 between Bharath Puttur and David Baker (22) set the foundation for a competitive 162-5 in 40 overs.

Opening the batting, Puttur hit an unbeaten 101, his century containing 15 fours and a six.

He was given good support from Baker (22) and Aruna Perera (22).

In reply, Aruna dismissed the Hitchin captain White early and despite some top order resistance by Mason (39), the scoring rate was kept in check.

The introduction of Leo Chan turned the match, and he claimed his first men’s five wicket haul with 5-22 off 8 overs.

Needing 40 from the 10th wicket partnership, Beaton and Moore kept calm and they put on 33 before the centurion Puttur bowled Moore to win the match.

Other wickets were shared between Sidd Suresh and Joshua Schumann with one each.

Ickleford's Sunday team put in a below-par performance and were well beaten by Luton Caribbean.

The Luton side were always on top of the Ickleford bowling and dropped catches did not help.

They made 213-4 in their 35 overs. Sam Larsen took two wickets while Dan Curry and Tyler Temple bowled well.

Ickleford made a bad start and it did not improve as they were dismissed for just 67 with only Matte Peareth and David Baker making double figures.