After successfully chasing totals in the last two matches, it was a case of "if it ain't broke don't fix it" for captain Mark Folwell as he won his third toss in as many weeks and asked Hemel Hempstead to bat.

Fielding only two players above the age of 20, things began really well for Park, but Hemel Hempstead's innings turned out to be very much an innings of two halves.

Initially, thanks mainly to two good bursts of bowling from Tom Carter and Jack Newland, Knebworth made regular breakthroughs and had Hemel Hempstead at 76 for 6. This brought together the Hemel Hempstead number 7 and 8 batsmen, Langley and Wilson, and between them they put together a game changing stand of 106. Some good batting coupled with a below par fielding performance allowed the score to get away from Park and the Hemel Hempstead innings closed on 194 for 8.

Mark Folwell again took wickets with his spin bowling, finishing with 3 for 25, but unlike the last two weeks, the pitch didn't offer assistance for him and young Luke Chapman.

For Knebworth to chase down the runs they needed a solid opening stand, something they had managed to produce in recent weeks. But this was not to be their day with the bat, and they lost an early wicket and then continued to lose regular wickets throughout their innings.

There were some glimmers of hopes, with George Gibbings (20) and Luke Chapman (14) playing some good strokes. However, they only other batsman to make it into double figures was Tom Carter, who was making just his second senior appearance and batted excellently to make 17 runs.

Knebworth were bowled out for 99 and in truth were well beaten by a more experienced Hemel Hempstead side. Had they managed to take one of a number of half-chances during the Hemel innings maybe the results would have been different.

On the positive side, Mark Folwell can be very proud of how his young troops performed for the first 25 overs in the field, and the team must now re-group and be ready for another important game next week.