Welwyn Garden City endured a horrific start to their first ever season in the Herts Cricket League Championship - as they were thumped away to Flitwick.

The 170-run loss leaves them plum bottom of the table after week one and on this performance, need a lot of work to achieve their goal of an instant return to the top flight.

They did win the toss but after putting the hosts into bat, they could only watch opener George Thurstance score a wonderful 133 before a Radhakrishna Marripati catch of the bowling of Fayaz Homyoon sent him back to the pavilion.

That, however, was on the second ball of the final over and the damage had been well and truly done.

He did get support along the way, but only Rhys Mariu stayed around long enough, scoring 56 himself as the pair put on 102 for the second wicket.

It left Flitwick on 263-8 after their 50 overs, Homyoon the only WGC bowler to truly get among the wickets, finishing on 4-37, although Tom Whitton did manage 2-35

But the reply did not bring any better fortunes and was done in the 28th over with Welwyn all out for 93.

Only Jacob Logan (27) and skipper Connor Emerton (20*) reached double figures with no partnerships of any note formed.

Welwyn return to Digswell Park on Saturday when Hoddesdon are the visitors, another side beaten on day one.

It was a tough weekend for all of Welwyn's teams with only the fifths winning, and the club having to concede their Hertfordshire T20 match against St Albans on Sunday.

Back up in the Premier Division, North Mymms were enjoying a winning start to the season, beating West Herts by 65 runs at Home Farm.

They were put into bat after losing the toss and went on to make 236-9, thanks to a couple of fine innings in the middle of the order.

Skipper Nesan Jeyaratnam and Richard Soulsby both hit half-centuries, 55 in 88 for the former and 53 in 98 for the wicket-keeper.

The pair put on 60 for the fifth wicket with William Jones (20) and Dharmarajsinh Jhala (23) keeping Soulsby company for the next two partnerships, 47 and 31 respectively.

And after a solid start from the visitors, a glut of wickets swung the game towards Mymms, West going from 36-0 to 64-6 in 14 overs.

Stubborn resistance from Simon Walker (25), Lewis Kocj (39) and Bill Gage (28) kept West Herts clinging on but they were eventually all out in the 45th over.

Rhys Wynne just took bowling honours with 2-22 although there was little to separate him from Jones, Jhala and Viv Paver as they all took two wickets.

Mymms go to Shenley on Saturday.

Elsewhere, Datchworth enjoyed a 199-run win at Allenburys & County Hall in Division Three A, Kieran Atkinson hitting 76, Mitch Constable 50 and Stuart Rietzler 49 before Atkinson rattled through the hosts with 6-17 in five overs, Tom Butler getting 3-4 in just 4.3 overs too.

Tewin lost though, beaten by 20 runs against Potton Town despite a wonderful 7-25 from Paul Shankster in 9.1 overs.

In Division Four A, Hatfield & Crusaders lost by 53 runs to Hitchin and Hatfield Hyde lost by six wickets at Broxbourne in Division Four B.

Bentley Heath meanwhile were beaten by five wickets in a low-scoring game at Old Owens seconds in Division Five A.