Llangaratne century guides Hemel Hempstead to victory
Hemis Llangaratne hit a fine century as Hemel Hempstead's first team beat Preston on a good day for the club.
Hemel completed the 'double' again over Preston as skipper Hemish Llangaratne scored 114 following his last innings of 93* against Shenley Village. Hem. now has 9.722 1st XI Herts League runs 275 off the record of 9,997 by Nick Wright. Batting first Hemel made 233 - 5 from 60 overs with Tom Elborn chipping in with 40 along the way. Hemel then bowled out Preston for 164 in 56.5 overs, requiring infrequent bowler Brett Penny to come on and remove the dug in Preston keeper Gallimore for 43 at the end to secure the win. Hemel are in 7th place in the Championship, 32 points ahead of 8th placed Preston.
2nd XI (H) vs St Albans 2nd XI - Div. 3A
A solid win for Hemel beating St Albans at home when they had lost at Clarence Park earlier in the season. Hemel bowled ot St Albans for 131 in 37.3 overs with Sam Kumar turning in 4 - 26 to wrap up the tail. Lutero Corrigan (38) held the innings together after the lose of 3 quick wickets and the middle order saw Hemel through to 132 - 5 from 33,4 overs. THe way these things go St Albans are 5th in Div. 3A and Hemel are 7th but there is only 20 points covering the positions 4th to 8th. So tight in there.
3rd XI (H) vs Weston 1st XI - Div. 6A
The 3rd win on this Saturday for Hemel sides as Hemel moved up to 2nd in Div. 6A on the same points as Old Elizabethans 2nd XI. Weston chose to bat and Hemel bowled them out for 213 in 48.2 overs. Couple of wickets each for Jacob Hodgins (2-34) and Eranda Jayasinghe (2-42) plus a couple of sharp run outs kept Hemel in control. 3 - 32 from Yasir Butt took out the top and saw off the end. Hemel's batting was sound but the key batter was Kam Akhtar who hit 75 (12X4s, 2X6s) and saw Hemel through to 216 - 8 from 46.5 overs and victory. Weston are in 7th place.
4th XI (A) vs Rickmansworth 3rd XI - Div. 8 West
The only Hemel side to lose this Saturday as a young side found a difficult pitch not easy to handle. Ricky made it to 157 - 9 from their 40 overs with opening bowler Ernie Coldwell taking 3 - 32 from his 8 overs and Henry Morgan coming on late to take 3 - 11 from 5 overs. Ernie ended up being the top scorer for Hemel as well as he made 26. Nobody else really contributed as Hemel were bowled out for 89 in 29 .1 overs. Ricky paying back Hemel for their earlier defeat in the season. Hemel are now 5th in Div. 8 West, Ricky are 7th.
5th XI (H) vs Watford Town 4th XI - Div. - 12 West
Back into winning ways for Hemel 5rths as they saw off 4th placed Watford Town 4ths in no uncertain manner. Putting Watford in Hemel bowled them out for 84 in 31.1 overs with James Cousens taking 3 - 24 from his 8 overs and 3 sharp run outs helping things along. Then Philip Smith (22*) and Sam Wheeler (54*) saw off the runs in 18 overs to move Hemel up into 2nd place in the division.