TOP 3 CONSOLIDATION AFTER COMFORTABLE WIN

A comfortable 103 run win over West Herts saw Bar consolidate their top 3 spot and see their record extended to 1 defeat in 11 league matches.

After a deluge on Wednesday and Friday saw an important toss won by the visitors and they had no hesitation in asking Bar to bat first. The visitors with Will Jones in fine form with the ball clearly saw the chance to take advantage but excellent batting from Steve Gale and Rehan Hassan saw Bar into a good position thanks to a 133-run partnership.

Both Steve Gale (62) and Rehan Hassan (70) got Bar into a strong position but the constant falling of wickets kept the visitors in the game and thanks to a cheeky run a ball 20 from Harrison Palmer and the usual Catherine Wheel batting of Thilan Walallawita (21*) which saw him become just the second Potters Bar cricketer in the modern day ECB era to have completed the 1000 run and 100 wicket milestone.

Bar closed their innings on 239 with a ball shy of their 50 overs and they were confident they could restrict the visitors. They didn't just restrict them, they strangled the life out of them as at no time did they get away and balls were being chewed up at an alarming rate.

It was Luke Chapman who took the bowling plaudits, with his 5 for 34 from 8 overs as he crashed through the 30 league wickets barrier for the season. There was another 2 wickets for Jigar Mehta (2 for 18) and Brad Sayers took 2 for 16. The visitors limped to just 136 as they are now in a real battle to stay in the division and it appears that they need to win at least two of their remaining three games to survive a league playoff in September.

For Bar they are 1 win away from securing a spot in the end of season playoffs where if you were a betting man it would mean a playoff game against Welwyn Garden City but there's a lot of cricket to play before those possible equations are inked in.

Next week Bar travel to Harpenden.