Hitchin's bid for promotion to the Herts Cricket League Premier Division took a hit after they were held to a draw at Luton Town & Indians.

They are now fourth, 56 points behind second-placed Shenley Village with eight games of the campaign remaining.

They had got off to a very promising start with 97 being scored for the first wicket.

Luke Day's 26 was the supporting role for Ajay Momi who went on to score 90.

Others to chip in to their final total of 281 from their 60 overs were Alex Binnie with 39, Saad Waqas with 28, James Tilbury with 14 but off just six deliveries and a final partnership of 40 between Sam Rippington (32*) and Musa Ilyas (28).

It was clear the wicket was flat and the outfield fast so bowling Luton out was going to be no easy task and so it proved.

Opening the bowling with Shaftab Khalid and Duncan Howells, Hitchin made early inroads, at one point having Luton 67-5.

Howells picked up three of those wickets and Khalid the others, however, the as the ball became softer and then changed because of a lost one, a fifth-wicket partnership of 101 between Sajjad Homyoonn and Habibullah Oryakhill saw the draw become the likely outcome.

Rippington gave Hitchin hope with his late introduction as he dismissed both Homyoon for 91 and Oryakhill for 40 but try as they might Hitchin could not take the last three wickets with Luton getting to the 55th over on 226-7.

There were mixed results for other sides.

The twos did beat Luton Town with young Jon Guest's 79, 72 of them coming from boundaries, 55 from Simon Bayston and 47 for James Smith taking them to

Harry Gates then snaffled a five-wicket haul as Luton were all out for 99.

There was a 73 for Chris Gadsen in the thirds, taking him beyond 500 runs for the summer, while 53 for youngster Luke Fox was not enough for the fourths to chase down Letchworth’s large score

Harry McDonald managed four wickets for the fifths and Martin Seale hit 75 for the sixths although both teams also lost.