A convincing win over Quick Haag saw Excelsior take a step closer to coronation, whilst Dosti hammered another nail into Hermes' top-flight coffin. Meanwhile VRA had their revenge on ACC in the second Amsterdam Derby, VOC's dire season continued away at HCC, and HBS held on for a hard-fought D/L/S win over Punjab.

After a fine all-round effort in the field from Excelsior at Thurlede abetted by some sloppy running from Quick Haag helped the champions-presumptive knock their visitors over for 126, Henk Mol's 45 the only significant hindrance. Despite getting rid of openers Tim Etman and Roel Verhagen early, Quick could find no way to break James Hilditch and Lorenzo Ingram's 3rd wicket stand, the pair making 52* and 66* as they closed out the match with an unhurried, chanceless century stand with an inevitability which might serve as a metaphor for something or other.

Meanwhile at the other end of the table Hermes likewise found the wickets of Dosti-United openers Ahmed and Tewarie early, but profited from it no more than Quick did. Mohammed Hafeez and Taruwar Kohli came together at 30-2 and were not to be separate until after a rain-enforced lunch break, having added another 210 runs to the total. Some late hitting from Corne Dry and Gary Gravesande got the hosts to 282 - which would likely have been beyond even a full-strength Hermes side.

As it was, the visitors were without Dan ter Braak and Seb Braat, and once Stephan Myburgh's aggressive opening salvo was cut short the outcome was more or less inevitable. Nick Statham hit 44 from 61, Nesaar and Bohra held out for a while down the order, but Hermes never threatened to get back in the game. Dry finished with 5-23 after running through the tail, Hermes capitulating for 164 all out.

In another match effectively won with one partnership, Jonathan Vandiar and Boris Gorlee secured a comfortable win for HCC over VOC at de Diepput. Max O'Dowd's would again top-score for VOC with 38, and with few other contributions to speak of the Rotterdammers struggled to 155 before being dismissed with 8 balls remaining.

Despite losing Hidde Overdijk on the first ball of their reply and Reinier Kalis ten overs later, HCC never looked in trouble. Vandiar made good use of some early fortune, striking an unbeaten 81. In the company of Gorlee, who notched up his first top-flight half century, Vandiar took HCC over the line with a six in the 33rd over.

Meanwhile HBS held off Punjab to claim a narrow D/L/S victory at Craeyenhout, Jaron Morgan top-scoring with 89 and Navjeet Singh and Adil Ahmed providing some acceleration at the death to get the hosts to an creditable 214-4 in a rain-affected first innings which saw the loss of 10 overs to the weather.

Ferdi Vink accounted for both openers as the Punjab chase got underway, needing a revised 226 from 40 to win, but Chaudhary and Shahzad's century partnership put the visitors back in charge as the rain loomed. A flurry of wickets reversed the momentum however, and when the weather finally broke the Rotterdammers were 7 down needing 21 off the last 2 overs. They never got a chance to try however, the rain keeping them off past the cut-off to hand the hosts a D/L/S victory.

Over at het Loopveld VRA kept the arithmetic possibility of catching Excelsior open with a straightforward win over ACC, Peter Borren's third century of the season underpinned the visitors' 249-run total, an impressive effort given a tricky pitch and a slow outfield. Borren's 114 took just 78 balls as he dominated a 112-run stand with Eric Szwarczynski for the 4th wicket, Rehmat Zulfiqar coming in for particular punishment as the VRA skipper slog-swept with enthusiasm - putting the luckless elder Zulfiqar repeatedly over the clubhouse.

A brisk run-a-ball 38 from Quirijn Gunning down the order kept the momentum going after Borren fell following a rain-enforced early lunch, and ACC never got into the chase. Asad Zulfiqar and Zakir Kathrada both went for single figures, and skipper Saqib Zulfiqar's 66 included too many dot balls to put pressure on the guests.

Jeroen Mulder combined with Nelson to effectively break the chase in the 30th over, dismissing Sikander Zulfiqar and Usman Malik in consecutive deliveries to reduce the hosts to 111-5, and thereafter ACC seemed to lose interest in winning the game. Number 7 Rasool took 16 balls to score a solitary run and by the time Gunning bowled Saqib for 66 the game was over. A 45-run partnership between Raza and Ashiqullah coming at over 6 an over gave the hosts something to cheer for, but the game was long gone - ACC eventually coming up 48 runs short.