Wombourne close the gap on Beacon at the summit
Wombourne closed the gap on Beacon at the top of the South Staffordshire County League to 16 points after an important win at the weekend.
They got the better of the league’s whipping boys in West Bromwich Dartmouth seconds after they lost the toss and got put into bat.
They made a competitive 252 all out in the 42nd over thanks to a well-made century from Ben Hudson. He faced 123 balls and ended on 114 while he was well supported by Matt Pountney who made 56 before being run out.
Todd Henderson, who is the league’s leading wicket-taker, was up to his usual tricks with the ball – taking 7-55 from his 15 overs as they bowled the visitors out for 99.
Beacon will be disappointed to have surrendered their 27-point lead at the top, but the weather looked to have gotten them out of jail at the weekend.
They were 69-3 in the 17th over chasing 277-4 when the rain came and abandoned the game leaving them with six points.
Rafay Ahmed made a blistering 133 from 118 balls to put Walsall in a commanding position.
Cannock have been in good form of late, and they picked up a winning draw against Fordhouses, but rain cost them an outright win.
Adam Benton (79) and Muhammad Sultan (94) put on an opening partnership of 169 after they were put into bat first – and they reached 284 for 5 from their 43 overs.
John Cooke was then in the wickets for the home side as he took 4-42 to reduce Fordhouses to 151-8 from their 30 overs but they were unable to get the last two wickets to get them a valuable 24 points.
Brewood picked up 20 points by getting the better of promotion-chasing Penkridge after they bowled them out for 119 with the wickets shared around.
They did lose six wickets chasing the total down though, and 43 not out by Mitch Bunker was needed to get them over the line.
Milford Hall’s tough run in the league continued as they failed to take advantage of Beacon’s slip-up.
They bowled first against Old Wulfrunians and the visitors got up to 230-7 from their 43 overs after lower-order runs from Nimanda Madushanka (61) and Caniston Gunaratnam (77).
Prabavan Vijayaratnam took 3-17 in his opening spell reducing Milford to 11-3, but they managed to get up to 113-5 and get a losing draw where they picked up eight points.
It was a valuable 16 points for the visitors who remain in the bottom two.
Hammerwich and Pelsall played out a draw in their mid-table clash.
The visitors batted first and made 238-9 in 42 overs and Hammerwich were 127-4 in the 30th over in reply in what looked as if it would be an entertaining final 12 overs.
