Halesowen in the hunt after impressive win

They are currently third, trailing Wolverhampton and Knowle & Dorridge by a few points in Division One – after another win at the weekend thanks to Ben Tredget’s 100 off 151 balls.

His knock, which included 15 fours, guided the hosts to 251-8 off their 55 overs at Seth Somers Park after Shrewsbury won the toss and put them into bat.

In the chase, Shrewsbury never got going – with Halesowen taking wickets at regular intervals and then eventually dismissing them for 116 – all of the five bowlers used by the home side picked up two wickets.

Wolverhampton battled their way to a losing draw against Smethwick. Kadeer Ali (89) and Kashif Ali (93) helped Smethwick to get up to 290-7 off their 55 overs.

They just about clung on for the draw with the final two batters blocking out the last over as they finished 237-9. Kadeer Ali took 4-57.

Kidderminster’s tough start to the season continued with defeat at Knowle & Dorridge – only Neil Pinner (79) provided any resistance for Kiddy as they batted first – they were bowled out for 199.

The home side made light work of the chase with Warwickshire batter Ethan Brookes making 93 off 89 balls to guide them to a seven-wicket victory.

In Division Two, West Bromwich Dartmouth got back to winning ways with a 24-point victory over Harborne.

Dartmouth batted first and made 227 all out thanks to Billy Cox’s 78 – Adam Carter took 5-40 for the hosts. And Harborne never got going in reply being dismissed for 141 in the 39th over.

Ravan Chahal took three for 36 and Sajid Ahmadzai took two for 30 as the main wicket takers with only Jimmy Clifford (37) and Karan Bharaj (22) putting up

Himley lost at home to Leamington. Graeme White guided the hosts to 211 all out in the final over of the innings with his 79 but the total always looked short and the visitors knocked it off with 13 balls to spare.

White took 4-63 from his 16 overs with the ball.

And Lichfield were on the end of a disappointing result at Dorridge after being bowled out for 93 chasing 189.

They would have thought they were well in the game when they bowled the hosts out thanks to James Wilkinson, who took 3-36 while Rob Turner and Geroge Turner also took three wickets each.

And it normally only gets harder for batting at Dorridge which proved to be the case for Lichfield as experienced league bowler Dave Ball took 5-14 off his nine overs.

He was backed up well by Leicestershire seamer Chris Wright who took 2-26 while being very economical as the home side continued there fine start to the season.