Cricket round-up: Sam’s performance is the Cherry on top for determined Dunstable

St Albans made 189-9 in their 53 overs before bowling Luton out just short at 185, N Mandale making 41 and D Patel 37.

Division Two leaders Dunstable Town held on for a draw again second-placed Botany Bay to stay top.

Despite being in trouble at 60-6, Bay managed to recover to 165-9 in their 53 overs, Sam Cherry taking 4-52.

Cherry then top-scored for Dunstable with 40 as they held on for a draw at 102-9.

Luton Town & Indians IIs had to settle for a draw against Old Albanians in Division Three. W Arif had taken 4-76 as Old Albanians were bowled out for 215, before Luton finished on 170-7 with J Singh top-scoring with 55.

Dunstable IIs eased to a 100-run win over Harpenden IIIs in Division Five.

Dave Barker made 78, Ian Horton 69 and Kashif Ali 45 not out as Dunstable made 255-5, before bowling Harpenden out for 155 with Awais Khan taking 4-43.

With Luton Town & Indians IIIs all out for 156, Codicote claimed a six-wicket victory in Division Seven. D Gould had made 35 and I Modak 31 in Luton’s total and Samad Parkar proceeded to take 3-53, but Codicote got home at 159-4.

Dunstable IIIs were held to a draw by Langleybury IIIs in Division Eight. Dave Skinner hit 65 and Paul Gilbert 35 in Dunstable’s 170-9, while struggling Langleybury clung on at 123-8 with Ayaz Ahmed taking four wickets.

Offley & Stopsley lost a thrilling encounter by two wickets at top-of-the-table Mill Hill Village.

Offley lost their first two wickets for nine runs and Jon Ceresale looked to be crafting a fine innings before he holed out to mid-off as a mini collapse saw Offley falter to 128-8. But Dhrupal Patel’s patient 60 helped Offley post 200

Under the gathering clouds Mill Hill started aggressively and poor fielding allowed the openers too many lives as they raced to 68 for no loss.

The introduction of Josh Hook broke this partnership, while Steve Denton stemmed the run tide with figures of 1-50 off 15 overs.

Regular wickets fell to Patel as he finished with 5-73, but Mill Hill got home at 201-8.

The result gave Offley 18 points to keep them within reach of relegation rivals Harpenden IVs ahead of their clash on Saturday.

Despite missing four of their top league wicket takers Pirton bowled superbly to beat Bayford & Hertford IIs by eight wickets in Division Nine.

Their promotion-chasing visitors were bowled out for a below par 173 in 47.2 overs as Pirton took wickets at regular intervals by bowling a good line. Veteran Graham Cane took 4-50 and Rob Bayley, playing his first game for two years, claimed 3-44 as they were well backed up by Jake Howard (1-30) and Will Gilder (1-45), while in the field Hyden Andrew took two catches and Richard Thompson and Sam Davies Jnr one each.

Despite losing Dave Newman for 15, Pirton eased to victory at 175–2 as Tom Laskowski (40) and Jake Howard (82no) put on 74 for the second wicket before Andrew (24no) and Howard shared an unbroken stand of 64 to give Pirton victory with 11 overs to spare.

Luton Town & Indians IVs fell to a four-wicket loss against Sandridge in Division Ten after being bowled out for 159 with Karanjit Singh top-scoring with 42. Sandridge then got home at 160-6, despite the best efforts of K Siyodia (2-38) and J Maicol (2-19).

Dunstable IVs secured promotion from Division Three of the Bedfordshire Saturday Invitation League with a 50-run win at Blunham and Roxton. Knocks of 97 not out from Avi Patel and 47 from Charlie Alden helped Dunstable to 215-4, before Blunham and Roxton were bowled out for 165.

Eaton Bray fell to a two-wicket defeat to Milton Keynes in Division One of the Morrants Four Counties League on Saturday.

Their total of of 229-6 wasn’t enough as Milton Keynes got home at 230-8 (see the video for match action).

On Sunday Dunstable stayed top of the Bedfordshire County League Premier Division with an easy 136-run win against Sharnbrook.

Sam Cherry scored his third century of the season with 105 not out and Terry Carr made 65 as Dunstable totalled 287-4.

Sharnbrook started briskly in reply but the introduction of spin, from Ian Gilbert (3-35) and Hitesh Modwadia (5-29), saw them dismissed for 151.

Lutonian totalled 260-9 as they raced to a 69-run over Luton Town & Indians. Opener Naeem Khan thumped 100, with other contribution coming from Aslam Khan (24no), Mohammed Haroon (19), Asif Khan (19), Hamid Riaz (16) and Mohammed Irshad (15). Akash Shah did his best to stem the flow with 3-43.

Luton were then bowled out for 191, N Mandale top-scoring with 67 and other contributions coming from Jeremy Page (35) and Jitu Singh (25). Irshad shone with the ball with 6-25 and Ahtzaz Ahmed claimed 2-23.

In Division One Dunstable IIs suffered a four-wicket defeat at Clifton.

Kasif Ali top-scored with 42 as Dunstable made 196-9 and, although Clifton lost wickets at regular intervals, they scored quickly and got home at 197-6.

Luton Town & Indians IIs scraped to a two-wicket win against Kempston Hammers. K Singh took 2-34 and J Trivedi 2-36 as Kempston Hammers were all out for 213 in 44.5 overs, and Luton hit 214-8 in 43.2 overs to win with S Katechia making an unbeaten 53 and H Chauhan 46.

Lutonian IIs claimed a 17-run victory at Cople Argus in Division Two, after amassing 238-6 in 40 overs, thanks to 52 from Shahzad Dar, 37 from Ammad Saeed, 32 from Avesh Odedra, 30 from Sajid Ali, 24 from Muhammad Kamran and 18 by Ejaz Farooq.

Cople finished on 221-8 with the wickets being shared around, Kamran taking 2-20, Sajid Sharif 2-13, Kashif Bhatti 2-26 and Saanwal Ilyas 2-44.

Division Three saw Luton Town & Indians IIIs streak to an 85-run victory over Kempston Sports. Hasan Al Mahmud hit 59 as Luton were bowled out for 215 and M Rasheed then took 2-13 to help bowl Kempston out for 130.

Dunstable IIIs fell to a 153-run home defeat to Clifton IIs in Division Four. Clifton batted first and scored 278-4 before bowling Dunstable out for a dismal 125, Avi Patel offering some resistance with 35.

Luton Town & Indians IVs beat Cople Argus by six wickets in Division Five. After Cople were skittled out for 78, Luton eased home at 79-4.

A tight finish saw Offley & Stopsley beat leaders Great Brickhill by three wickets to maintain their promotion chances.

Another great bowling performance restricted Brickhill to only 132 from 37 overs.

Opening bowlers Colin Keeley (2-22) and skipper Mathew Freeman (2-14) made an impression before Kieran Maher took 3-40 with his leg spin to close out the innings.

Offley looked comfortable at 84-2 with young Jake Toyer (29) and in-form Colin Williams (32) going strong.

But a batting collapse reduced them to 106-7, before Keeley battered 30 runs in four overs to secure a welcome victory with a six over mid-off as they finished on 136-7.