LONDON took on St Albans on a
glorious sunny afternoon at Haileybury, but on a pitch that had
suffered from the weekend rain. St Albans put London in, and their
opening bowlers made life difficult for London's batsman. Moffat
and Rose dug in and built a solid, if slow, platform, before Moffat
was lbw to Tucker in the 15th over for 20.
Lee went shortly after, before Beeby and Rose began to build
again; at which point Swabey came into his own, getting Beeby with
one that shot along the ground, and catching Allerton brilliantly
off his own bowling. London were wobbling on 120 for 8. Then Downes
and Marshall produced a scintillating eighth-wicket partnership to
help take the overall score to 196 for nine off 40 overs.
London soon got among the St Albans batting, and the game looked
like it might be over fairly quickly. Kendall removed Gibbs and
Iqbal in his first two overs, and Lee dismissed Baker for eight, to
leave St Albans on 20-3. Then Hudson and Tucker set about the
recovery, taking St Albans to 100-4 with 20 overs left. Tucker went
for 43, but some great hitting from Swabey took the score to 150.
When he fell to Chrystal for 25, however, the game was up, and St
Albans finished on 160 all out, coming up 37 runs short of their
target.
It may have been gloriously sunny in Hertford; but the match
between Peterborough and Norwich
was threatened with rain. Fortunately the rain held off - or
unfortunately for Norwich, who batted first at Bar Hill, and were
all out for just 40 in 20.3 overs.
Peterborough's bowlers were in control from the start, Foster,
Wills, Reith, and Davies doing most ofthe damage.
In reply, Peterborough scored 41 in 6.3 overs without loss.
Benoy and Taylor were the undefeated pair.
Guildford travelled to Winchester on Monday for
the group decider at Newfound. Winchester won the
toss and put Guildford in to bat. The skipper, Owen, made an
opening 48, and Watson, coming in at number four, matched his score
with a quick-fire, hard-hitting performance; but the batting
honours went to Martin, who scored a measured 111 not out. The
total was an imposing 232 for four in the 40 overs.
Winchester were impressive, but struggled to keep up with the
run-rate, and ended up on 176 for 8. Tuck almost carrying his bat
for 61; Wharton did some damage at the end, with 27 not out. Watson
took 3 for 25 in his 8 overs, Moray Thomas 2 for 28, and John
Marrow 2 for 10 in 4 overs.
London 196-9 (Rose 33, Downes 42,
Marshall 25; Swabey 3-35, Tucker 1-19). St Albans
160 all out (Tucker 43, Swabey 25; Chrystal 3-20, Allerton 3-41,
Kendall 2-12).
London beat St Albans by 37 runs.
Norwich 40 all out (Hill 6; Reith 3-3,
Foster 2-3, Wills 2-16, Davies 2-12). Peterborough
41 (Taylor 26*, Benoy 10*).
Peterborough beat Norwich by ten wickets.
Guildford 232 for 4 (Owen 48, Watson 48,
Martin 111*). Winchester 176 for 8 (Tuck, 61,
Wharton, 27*; Watson 3-25, Marrow 2-10).
Guildford beat Winchester by 57 runs.
* not out