Burghill boost promotion hopes by beating Old Boys

8:50am Friday 22nd August 2008

ON a day when the only winner in most of the local cricket matches was the rain, Burghill and Tillington were one of very few sides to have a good day.

The villagers defied the elements and the opposition of Division 4 South leaders in the Crusader Worcestershire County League, Old Vigornians, to reach second place in the table and give themselves a definite chance of promotion to division 3.

They found runs hard to come by against accurate bowling in dry conditions, but battled solidly to reach 132-8 in their 50 overs, and then took the final six wickets for 16 runs with the rain falling, to bowl the home side out for 76 and win by 56-runs.

After an early burst from Alex Hedges, who struck four boundaries in the first seven overs, the runs dried up and wickets tumbled.

Burghill & Tillington were in trouble at 50-4 after 30 overs with Hedges gone for 20 but Mark Preece made the Old Boys suffer after they spilt a chance off him. He made 41, the highest score of the day. Matthew Biggs (18) and John Terry (13) helped to boost the total.

The home side’s innings was reduced to 45 overs after a sharp bout of rain. Hedges took two early wickets to put the home side on the back foot.

With Dominies turning up to watch the end of the game after hammering Tenbury, both sides realised they needed to win to maintain their promotion chances, despite the rain.

When Old Vigornians reached 60-4 they looked to be favourites, but then Steve DeSouza (4-23), Terry and the returning Hedges (3-6 off 8.3 overs) blew the tail away.

The other two games in this division were washed out. Canon Frome failed to bowl a ball at Martley, while Barnards Green 3rd made 200-8 at Ross-on-Wye.

Andrew Bevan took 7-69 and Chris Gage grabbed the other wicket.

The title race in Division 1 is still wide open after Stourbridge, Eastnor and Bromyard were victims of the weather.

Eastnor’s final home game with Droitwich was called with the home side firmly in the driving seat. Droitwich were struggling on 17-4 after 11.2 overs chasing the home team’s score of 207-8.

Adeel (4-8) produced a devastating opening spell to go with his 38 runs in the first innings.

His rival for man of the match was skipper Jabran who scored a solid 78 (five fours and three sixes) to anchor the Eastnor batting. Ishtiaq was unbeaten on 35 at the end.

Bromyard must have fancied their chances as well. They were 42-0 after eight overs chasing home side Netherton’s first innings total of 191-8.

Nigel Davenport made 96 for Netherton while Zahid Saeed, Barry Rhodes and Steve Tomkins took two wickets apiece for Bromyard. Oliver Bailey (25) and Ashley Bullock (16) got the visitors away to a confident start.

It was a similar story at Colwall in Division 2. There was no change at the top of the table with Colwall sandwiched between Coombs Wood and Bewdley after all three sides were rain affected.

Colwall batted first in their home fixture with Alvechurch & Hopwood and half-centuries from Nick Panniers (58), Matt King (53) and Odge Davey (53), plus 29 from Tim Riley, saw them well-placed on 242-9 at tea.

The other match to reach a result, of sorts, was Monmouth who had to settle for a losing draw in a rain-reduced run-chase by home side Malvern.

Monmouth were bowled out for 108 and Malvern were deemed to have a winning draw when the game was called off after 19.5 overs with their score on 57-6.

A low-scoring Division 3 game between home side Rushwick and Wormelow was in an interesting position when it was called off. The home side were 29-3 after bowling Wormelow out for just 73.

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