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Hard work the key for super Vale

Springvale captain Steve Blews hailed hard work as the key after his side collected their first win of the season by shocking Wednesbury.

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Blews believes hours of practice in the nets came to fruition, as Mark Kraushaar led them to victory with an unbeaten 63.

Danny Archer fired a quickfire 53 and Blews made 35, as Springvale reached 193-4 to secure a six-wicket success.

Earlier David Perry and Anwar Shamin had claimed three wickets apiece in Wednesbury's 192 all out, with a miserly spell of 2-28 from 15 overs from Dave Bennett also proving crucial.

Blews said: "It's been a long time coming and it was my first win as captain, so we were delighted to get over the line.

"But I have felt it's been coming. We have been playing some good cricket in the last few weeks and just losing out.

"We've got a few players back from university and have worked hard on key things in practice.

"That hard work has paid off now."

Wednesbury skipper Craig Cartwright has vowed to ring the changes after losing patience with his mis-firing batsmen.

Cartwright's men suffered a second successive reverse, following another top order collapse in their clash with Springvale.

Their 192 included a half-century from Neil Whistance but Cartwright was left ruing an early clatter of wickets, that forced the middle and lower order batters to adopt a more cautious approach.

The captain said: "I said last week that the top order was becoming a problem for us and that was the case again this week.

"We have spoken about it at length and I have got options. Our second team are top of their league and there will be changes."

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