Warwickshire & West Midlands Sport

Brushed aside at Bromsgrove

STRATFORD suffered a disappointing start to their Birmingham League Division One campaign as they crashed to an eight wicket defeat at Bromsgrove on Saturday.
Put in, Stratford lost the early wicket of Paul Malkin but David Lamb 30 and Sam Neale 28 combined to add a second wicket stand of 41.
Skipper Paul Best also showed plenty of promise in hitting 34 but the middle order collapsed in the face of fine bowling from Nick Husbands and Jason Lynch as Stratford slumped from 87 for 2 to 151 all out which was boosted by late contributions from Wigsy Troughton 10 and Tom Grundy 17.
Husbands finished with 5-42 from 15.4 overs, while Mark Evenson 2-25 and Lynch 2-21 offered good support.
Bromsgrove faced a tricky 15 over spell before tea and lost Ashley Newdick who was caught by dan Sutton off the bowling of Grundy for just a single.
But Jayden Levitt and Worcestershire player Alexei Kervezee lifted the reply to 81 for 1 at the interval.
Levitt (41) fell shortly after the break to Best but Rob Hendry 22no shared an unbroken partnership of 62 with Kervezee who compiled a classy 80no.
Stratford will be looking to bounce back when they entertain Wombourne on Saturday (12 noon).
The 2nds opened their campaign with an emphatic eight wicket victory over newly-promoted Kidderminster at Swan’s Nest Lane.
The visitors struggled 142 for 9 with Steve Cootes returning an impressive 6-16, while debutants Liam Killian 1-18 and Sam Douthwaite 1-24 also tasted success.
Stratford openers Sean Morris 38 and skipper David Black 35 began in positive mood and took the score to 56 at the end of the tenth over.
Black was dismissed in the 12th over with the score on 64, but Rob West 44no joined Morris and continued the positive approach until Morris fell in the 19th over.
Jim Harcourt 16no joined West and the pair overhauled the target with 27 overs to spare.
The 2nds travel to Walmley this Saturday.

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