BROMYARD v STOURBRIDGE

BROMYARD cruised to a nine wicket WCL Division One win at home to Stourbridge, finally completing a game for the first time in a month.

With the ground and wicket still wet from the continually heavy rain of recent weeks, Zahid Saeed won an important toss and asked Stourbridge to bat first.

This paid early dividends as the dangerous left-hander Oliver Hill was caught and bowled by Zahid for a duck after getting a leading edge, and fellow opener Richard Bradley was well held in the gully by Ash Bullock off the bowling of Zahid for two. This left Stourbridge 3-2 and with the ball popping on the wet wicket, run-scoring was very hard work for the first two hours of the game.

Things got worse for the North Worcestershire side when James Musk was caught by Zahid at short cover off a ball which stopped on him, having made nine, from the bowling of Shahzad Mahmood, and former Pedmore skipper Matt Porter was well held at short fine-leg by Dean Corbett off the bowling of Zahid for one, leaving the score 17-4 in the 13th over.

Number three Nitesh Patel had survived one skied pull shot when he repeated the stroke and was very well held off a swirling top-edge at mid-wicket by Mahmood for 12, making the score 33-3 and leaving Bromyard pushing for an early finish.

Wicket-keeper Wesley Griffiths dug in, but having made a patient 12, he clipped a half-volley from James Hine straight to Mahmood making it 58-6. However, this was the last bit of good fortune Hine had, as several balls just beat the edge of the bat or the stumps, and Alex Bingham was dropped twice off his bowling. The number seven made the most of his good fortune hitting 79 off 91 balls with seven fours and two sixes, as Stourbridge rallied to a final total of 140 all out in 47.4 overs.

Matt Bradley joined Bingham in a valuable partnership of 61 in the seventh wicket before being bowled by Hine for 11, and Shahzad Mahmood picked up the final two wickets, as Stourbridge were one man short due to their overseas player being involved in a car crash on the way to the game.

Zahid Saeed returned figures of 4-26 from 13 overs for Bromyard and received excellent support from Shahzad Mahmood (3-43 off 14.4 overs) and James Hine (2-27 off 11).

With West Indian all-rounder Mali Richards missing, Bromyard's run chase was likely to be somewhat easier than it might have been, but Matt Bullock fell lbw in the first over of their reply to leave them 0-1.

However, his in-form brother Ashley had few alarms, and with fellow left-hander Edd Oliver digging in, Stourbridge could not add to their early breakthrough. With the wicket now drying out into a typically flat Flaggoners Green strip, Stourbridge used seven bowlers in an effort to turn things around, but Bullock, with 82no off 117 balls with 14 fours (his third consecutive league 50) with support from Oliver (35no) saw Bromyard comfortable through to their winning total of 143-1 in 35 overs.

Bromyard now lie fourth in WCL Division One, 16 points behind leaders Droitwich Spa and hot on the heels of Worcester Nomads and Redditch.

BROMYARD seconds had another very disappointing day, going down to defeat by ten wickets at the hands of Belbroughton.

Batting first, Bromyard were skittled for 72 all out, only reliable veteran Dave Benbow (12), Mike Reece (11), usual third XI skipper Dave Clegg (20) and Andy Harwood (12) making double figures.

For Belbroughton John Raybould took 5-28.

In reply, David Palmer made 39no as Belbroughton reached their target of 73 without loss in 19.5 overs.

The seconds remain bottom of WCL Division One 2nd XIs.

BROMYARD thirds however continued their superb season with a sixth successive victory, as they defeated leaders Strollers Seconds to replace them at the head of Marches League Division Five.

Batting first, nine-man Strollers had no answer to Bromyard's four-man seam attack of Paul Tomkins (1-17 off 12 overs), youngster Jordan Tomkins (1-15), James Bagley (2-25) and 17-year-old Steve Trafford (4-24), as they were bowled out for 79, only Chris Toomer (14), skipper Keith Bushell (10) and David Skyrme (23) making double figures.

In reply, all-rounder Paul Tomkins blasted 58no with five fours and three sixes as the winning total of 84-1 was reached after just 18.5 overs.

The Thirds travel to Kington fourths tomorrow (Saturday).