Halesowen topple Wolves to replace them at the top

The Seth Somers Park outfit were in control throughout as they inflicted a first defeat of the season on their rivals, who saw their own stay at the summit ended after only one week.

After winning the toss and choosing to bat, Wolverhampton were quickly in trouble as they slumped to 17-3 and 85-6 with Eddie Rhodes (2-24) and Ed Bragg combining to tear through the top order.

Former Halesowen player Hassan Quami engineered something of a fightback with a belligerent 56 but the home side’s total of 183-9 felt below par, Bragg finishing with figures of 4-58.

The visitors suffered an early blow in their reply when Alex Bingham departed without scoring but fellow opener Ben Tredget (69) shared in a 115-run second wicket partnership with Simon Gregory (45) to ease them toward the target. Skipper Alex Kervezee finished unbeaten on 31 as Halesowen got home with room to spare.

A blistering century from Worcestershire’s Kashif Ali helped defending champions Smethwick continue their climb up the Division One table with an eight-wicket win over Kidderminster, who remain rooted to the bottom.

Former Pear and Kidderminster captain Neil Pinner scored 119 from 114 balls to help his team reach 235 but Kashif made light work of the chase. The 25-year-old smacked 115 from just 78 balls, including five sixes, as Smethwick reached their target in a little more than 32 overs. Kadeer Ali also scored 59, facing the same number of balls as Kashif.

Three Himley bowlers claimed three wickets each to help their team beat Coventry & North Warwickshire and keep pace with Division Two leaders Dorridge.

Put into bat, hosts Coventry had reached 83-1 before Jamie Turner, Ben Robinson and Ollie Walker combined to run through the order. Turner finished with 3-42, Robinson 3-23 and Walker remarkable figures of 3-0 from his two overs as the home side collapsed to 117 all out. Himley openers Connor Smith (40) and Bilal Hussain (34) then put on 59 for the first wicket before Navindu Vithanage hit an unbeaten 27 from 26 balls to see them over the line.

West Bromwich Dartmouth remain third in the table, but lost a little ground on the top two as they had to settle for a high-scoring winning draw at Lichfield.

Skipper Danny Cox scored a patient 63 from 122 balls to anchor the visiting team’s innings before Shahzeb Raja planted his foot on the accelerator, smacking 62 from just 23 balls in the closing overs as Dartmouth finished on 302-6.

Lichfield lost opener Rich Taylor-Tibbott early in the reply and never looked like troubling the target but their middle order dug in impressively, Stuart Fielding scoring 48 and Safian Mir hitting 37.

Dartmouth continued to plug away and when Mir was the ninth man to fall, they had 15 balls to claim the final wicket. Yet the moment eluded them, despite the best efforts of Ravan Chahal (4-64).