HIGH Wycombe CC’s title hopes were dealt another soggy blow on Saturday when rain stopped them in full flow against Harefield.

It was their fourth game in eight Home Counties fixtures lost to the weather while two others were rain-reduced matches.

Saturday’s abandonment was particularly galling, with their last-placed opponents already wobbling at 32-4 and heading apparently only one way.

High Wycombe captain Matthew Eyles said: “I’m absolutely convinced we’d have won that game.

“The wicket was as good as it had been the previous weekend [when they and Tring Park scored more than 600 runs between them] and we’d have bitten your hand off to have them at 32-4.

“It was such a good wicket, but their batting was going nowhere and I’m sure our quality would have shone through.”

The London Road outfit were desperate for a victory to close the gap on leaders Burnham, and after winning the toss they looked well on their way with opening bowler Jamie Benning finding his range to dismiss Simon Masey in the first over.

Benning also removed number three George Shiel and number five Robert Tidey, and with George Harper getting rid of Adam Cossins Wycombe were turning the screw at 32-4 after 13 overs.

However, there wasn’t time for a 14th before the rain came and called a premature end to proceedings.

Eyles said: “You could see it coming down the valley from West Wycombe. I was being as attacking as I could be, I had so many attacking fielders it was ridiculous really but I was just hoping we might get on again later.”

That was it for the day though, and Eyles was so irritated it wasn’t until the next day that he found out that no other game in the division played to a conclusion either.

He said: “I didn’t even look at the other results until Sunday, I was that frustrated.

“But we’re not going to win the league if we’re rained off against the bottom sides.

“It means we’re going to have to beat all the top teams to win the league. Over the course of a season it’s hard to achieve that.”

High Wycombe are due to play Slough on Saturday, but Eyles is already fearing the worst.

He said: “Slough have only played one game at home all year. Their pitch just isn’t draining from the volume of rain in the winter and there is meant to be more rain about on Friday.”

High Wycombe didn’t play last Sunday either, although they did at least get a win.

They were due to play Great & Little Tew in the quarter-final of the Home Counties League T20 Cup, but the Division Two side conceded.