DIVISION TWO: Northwood 241 (30pts) beat Flitwick 109 (8pts) by 132 runs

IRRESISTIBLE Simon Noach sliced through the Flitwick batting to claim a superb eight for 40 as Northwood under-lined their promotion credentials.

The skipper built on a somewhat fragile batting display, with three notable exceptions, to clean up the Flitwick order after Stuart Reeve and Raj Latchman grabbed the first two wickets.

The 132-run victory took Northwood up to fifth place, currently 12 points off the top four finish they need to return to Division One.

Daniel Rodgers made a welcome return to the batting line-up at the top of the order and he remained for most of the innings to compile a vital 97 before being caught behind.

Andy Sharland (61) joined him early on after Tom Brockton's (1) demise, putting on 126 for the second wicket and with a total of seven players departing for single figure scores it needed a priceless 32 from number eight Paul Richardson to get Northwood up to 241 all out.

Reeve (1-24) and Latchman (1-18) accounted for the Flitwick openers before the game turned into the Noach show as he produced an exhibition in straight, fast bowling. He clean bowled five batsmen, had two trapped LBW and saw another caught in the slips for his magnificent haul.

* The second team had to play well to record a seven-wicket victory over a strong Luton Town and Indians second string that belied their bottom place in Division Five.

Northwood fielded arguably their strongest team so far yet after Luton won the toss they made the most of a bouncy wicket to score freely until left arm spinner Iyyaz Sharif took five for 54 from 19 overs.

Ram Nandiraju (3-82) chipped in and Nigel Hussey also overcame his catching jinx with three stunning takes in the field as Luton finished on 208 all out.

In Ranjit Latchman and Keith Watson, Northwood have one of the most reliable opening partnerships anywhere in the league and they put on 141 for the first wicket before Latch-man was caught behind on 84.

Watson (60) fell soon after and Matt Ackroyd (28 not out) and Andy Powell Williams took them close but they still required 25 off the final four overs.

Steve Hussey (11 not out) then struck two firm boundaries to complete the win. [25a0] The third XI was unable to make it a win treble as they fell to a strong Lever-stock Green third team.

Ghassan Ali made 41 on his North-wood debut but it was down to Paul Reeve (25) and promising youngster Steve Dickson (24) at the tail of the innings to take the score up to 149.

Ghassan Ali (1-31) claimed his first league wicket bowling in tandem with his brother Farhad (1-31) but none of the bowlers were able to make any real inroads and Leverstock reached their target for the loss of only four wickets.